’Ndrangheta. Multilevel Criminal System of Power and Economic Accumulation

This chapter is the product of a decennial activity of empirical research work on the 'ndragheta and takes into account the strategies aimed at building a multilevel system of power. In their traditional territories, the ’ndrine (the cells of the ’Ndrangheta) practice a kind of “territorial domination,” (Santino 1994; Siebert 1996a) which is maintained via a network of corrupt politicians and other clients. In many areas of Calabria, this network involves substantial portions of society in the exploitation of public resources, which assures for the ’ndrine a deep reservoir of consensus and, conse- quently, social and political protection. At the end of the chapter the moving strategies of the 'ndrangheta towards many areas of the world are taken into account as constituive characters of this mafia association.