Silvio Berlusconi -- Photo by Lorenza e Vincenzo Iaconianni (Wikimedia/CC BY-SA)
Italian mobsters have reigned in many countries with royalty status. Can the new Prime Minister of Italy reign them in? Italy has a reputation for having given birth to the most organized and ordered criminal organization in the Western Hemisphere. La Cosa Nostra, an Italian-American mob, was born forth from the family-based culture of Italy and has spread to other parts of the globe.
Italian mob in politics
Over the years this organization grew to the point that members also began dabbling in politics and found that they were at home in it. They have pervaded society on the level that they are operating outside the system, but in reality, influencing almost everything. They are the shadow hand in all things: laws, government policies, decisions of elected officials, unexplained crimes and other social anomalies.
Mob history in the U.S.
It is generally believed that the pervasive hold the mob once had in the United States took a drastic turn in the ’60s and ’70s. Many mob bosses were locked up and their establishments and wealth confiscated. Examples of this include the massive transfer of wealth in the form of gambling casinos in Las Vegas, Nev. Some believe the mob gained power in the ’20s because of the prohibition of alcohol. It is believed that changes in lending laws, which made the way for the no credit check payday loan and cash advance loan industries, removed a large source of income, namely illegal loan sharking.
A program to rid Italy of the mob
The crime families are said to have amassed so much power and wealth that they can actually steer the government and even put into power any government official. That is the current state of controversy faced by the Italian Prime Minister. Silvio Berlusconi is said to enjoy the favor of the various crime families at least in Italy who, according to rumors, make sure that the regions of the country they control support him.
The theory examination
Prime Minister Berlusconi has been conducting a program to rid Italy of the mob. However, thinking skeptically, what better front for a mob-installed politician than to have a policy of being anti-mob? After all they have done in the past, it could be that mobsters have orchestrated their own public decline so that they can better retreat into the backdrop and still continue to exist, but more discreetly. No one knows for sure, though.
