Examine the roots of the Russian Mafia and account for its influence in Russia today - Essay Example

The Mafia is an illegal organization which is involved in organized criminal activity. Rigid rules, violence and monopoly of illegal activities are some of its attributes. “Gambetta defines the Mafia as an industry which supplies private protection (Gambetta, 1991:2). The Mafia produce and sells a very special commodity, trust or protection. Like ‘organized crime’ in general, the Mafia aims to produce, advertise and sell protection in conflict with the state. The Mafia operate in those economic transactions and agreements where protection is either inefficiently supplied or cannot be supplied at all by the state…” (The Russian Mafia: Do Rational Choice Models Apply?, date ?: p.7-8). Similar to the claims made by Gambetta, Hobsbawn also maintains that the “Mafia tends to develop in societies in which citizens regard the authorities as hostile.

He argues that the Mafia provides a parallel masculine law and organized power in societies in which the official government is not effective, and most of the citizens in the areas under its influence believe that it is the only effective law and power” (The Russian Mafia: Do Rational Choice Models Apply?, date ?: p.7) The Russian Mafia has often been studied in comparison with the Sicilian Mafia. The emergence of the latter in Southern Italy was due to the uneven transition of the market economy.

The Italian citizens lost trust in the Italian state due to the fact that property rights and individual protection was not thoroughly given by it. This led to a rise in the demand for ‘protection’ and this protection was in turn provided by the Mafia. Similarly, part of the emergence of the Russian Mafia owes itself to the undefined transition of its market economy wherein there were no exact rules and regulations to govern the producers, sellers and consumers. Citizens were thus bereft of legal protection and