I was just thinking about this and thougt: well if want to make a philosophy about it I just share it with the fellow members of this board who also know a lot about Mafia.

First thing to mention will be: Mafia is capable of adepting methods of crime to the era they live in. For example: in the beginning of Mafia in Sicily the Mafia saw an oppurtunity to make money in the agriculture(one of the important things that made the Mafia)by protecting the land for the landowners and get the 'pizzo' (protection money) for it. Agriculture was in that era an important business. Nowadays the Mafia is making investments in legal businesses, big multi nationals etc. Conclusion: Mafia is very good in seeing the oppurtunities, adept the methods, and make money.

Second thing: even when they are capable of making new methods, they can't survive without the old ones! That's sounds like a paradox: the are very good in making new methods, but they can't live without the old ones. But it's really true. When Mafia is pushed back by governments or whatever they simply fall back on old tactics. 'Pizzo' (when money isn't rolling that hard), murders of people who are against them, and even hide when it's necessary because the Mafia is a bit smaller because of trials/justice. Ofcourse you can say these aren't 'old' tactics but in the beginning Mafia used them to grow and nowadays I think that the Mafia rather loses these tactics then frequently use them.

Now a difficult part: the code of silence, or Omerta. A lot of discussion around this part I guess :rolleyes: . In the beginning Omerta was a sufficient key to survive. Until it was broken by some members. The government gets the insights they want and are now capable to undertake something against Mafia. So most people here will think that Omerta doesn't count as one of the arguments that Mafia is surviving. Well, my first argument pro Omerta will be: without Omerta Mafia probably wouldn't excist at all! In the beginning a code of silence will have more value then when the Organization is already big. My second argument: without the Omerta everybody is allowed to speak, because there's no punishment from within Mafia. Nobody will doubt when the have to talk to police. But WITH the code, people will have at least think about the consequences. There's still a possibility that Mafia will do anything to kill you, so the few percent of Mobsters who realize this will not talk. And even that few percents is a victory for Mafia and will help evolving the Mafia.

Fourth point: the structure of Mafia. I think this a very very important part. Just compare it with legal businesses. When a company doesn't have a good structure, where everybody knows his job, it can't functionate. Mafia is also very good organized. Although there are several structures possible within Mafia, like bureaucratic or patronal, it's very important that everybody knows who is his direct boss.

Fifth point: weakness of governments. Governments are very weak (Although the RICO-act in the US is very good I think they still don't have enough to get the Mafia as a total, and we even don't talk about acts in Sicily because they don't have any). When the governments or police/justice departments are allowed to do more and easier convict mobsters Mafia will not be surviving that easy.

Sixth point: 'intelligent' Mafia. With this I mean: Mafia knows what to do and what not to do. The making of the commission or Cupola is a very good step of Mafia. For example: there's a war between two families but this war is attracting to much attention from government then they simply forbid the two families to further kill eachother. When a mobster is acting like a movie-star they kill him (also to much attracting of attention). These are a few examples but there are a lot more. One coming up now in my mind, and a very important one: the know who to support and who not. In politics they many times switched from supporting party's. Strong point of Mafia in my opinion.

Well this was my theory for now...I just hold back some additional information for the people who are taking down my position ...people: comments please!