Analytical Paper

In the late 19th century the populace of Italy found they faced extreme prejudice within the legal system of an oppressive, fascist, and nationalist government. There was a widely acknowledged need for a new system of justice that could protect the working and middle class from an unfairly practiced law system. To fight the injustice this government posed an organization was slowly secretly created through the country by word of mouth. The mafia was established widely in Italy by the late 1800s. The Mafia was a secret organization who took justice into their own hands for a price and acted much like a government without paperwork or the officially declared status. They were, in fact, the exact opposite, they never even declared existence. There was little or no justice administered by the government, and any mounted opposition to the governed justice was harassed and punished by the police. The Mafia was a system some would call vigilantism, and others would call a group dedicated to violence and profitable crime. The organizations spawned from men who at the time realized the opportunity that the unlawful government had presented for them. The lack of approval for the government by the populace left the people in need of a power to turn to so that true justice could turn to in times where the faced prejudice.
The Mafia molded its organization’s structure after the paramilitary government that occupied Italy at the time of the emerging fascist government. Any government of said structure had a strict chain of command to maintain a high level of order and efficiency. The first system that would be set up was the chain of command. This chain of command delegated measures of power to different members on different levels of the chain. The four levels of power maintained the operations from which all members of power profited along with the public that was protected from facing an uphill battle for justice. Any member depending on his actions along the path of his career, similar to the career path of any industry of government could reach the four levels of infrastructure. The Mafia, being such a drastically undermining organization, had to keep its members and practices shrouded in mystery. Their operational methods adapted to help complete such a difficult task. The four levels of command were never to relay information of their high levels of power to any outside of their group. This maintained a high level of security regarding information and even higher level of inner security.
At the bottom of the chain there were associates. These individuals were not considered quite members as they were considered profitable accomplices. They were those who assisted or were assisted by the Mafia in a sign of good faith to the organization. Associates were people who needed money to start a business or owned a business that needed help to keep its interest protected from competing businesses. These individuals were often not interested in a career in the Mafia but more in need of the assistance the services of the Mafia could provide. These associates could also be helpers to soldiers in enterprising illegal rackets for profit.
Slightly higher up the chain was the soldier of the Mafia. These individuals were trusted and guaranteed members of the secret order. They operated businesses the Mafia would assist or even operate businesses not considered legal, such as gambling, in some cases prostitution, and other profitable endeavors undermining the law. They were also guaranteed the privileges of support of the high command of the Mafia and all the benefits of power that accompanied that status such as assistance in hiding when the police or government was attempting to imprison a member. Soldiers also were the arms of the high end of the chain of command and received orders from their bosses on jobs to keep up the image and name of their organization in the viewpoint desired by the top boss or don, who sent the commands down the chain through a middle man.
Above a soldier was the captain, or capo. These were the Generals and took commands from only the highest end of the chain to distribute to soldiers who would then carry out the job required to whatever extent the captain made clear. They played a pivotal role in the separation between the troops and the command as a middleman. They kept a very essential layer between the high command and the commanded that was needed to ensure the safety of any organized Mafia. They were the buffer zone of making sure the Don was not implicated.
The boss or Don was the in command for the organization. How these men came to power was through their own actions to win approval of their soilders and more highly trusted capos. They also won the approval and more valued trust of the populace.They masterminded the actions of their individual Mafias through the chain of command to wield power that was considered fair to both his employees and his public in his respected territories. The level of fairness and protection offered to his men and public could be proved false in many cases in history. Such Dons with unfair practices often taxed the businesses he protected harshly or did not assist citizens in need of help.
The membership of this organization came at a heavy price for any desiring the rise to power in its ranks. A member’s allegiance came to their Mafia, or family, or organization, named many different things for many different legal and digressional reasons. Their allegiance was the stability of the secrecy of their livelihood and the livelihood of all that helped in the operational ends of the Mafia. Vows were taken to up hold the ancient laws of omerta, a rigorous promise of silence and non-cooperation with the police and government. If one should break the vow their lives would most certainly be forfeited to the vigilance of the Mafia’s long reaching influence.
These strictly enforced and widely understood ways were the operational language used by the Mafia to maintain respect from its beneficiaries. The close knit acceptance of these ways by the Italian culture allowed for such a way of life to migrate with normal civilians such as the mass immigration to the United States by many ethnic cultures in the dawn of the twentieth century. It began as a rumor heard from Italian immigrants and would prosper until decades after its arrival on the American shores. By the time the public was made aware of its existence lawmakers were able to rewrite and write new laws to fight such organizations. As its secrecy faded so did its level of protection from the heads of the Mafias developed in the United States.