States & Organized Crime

I recently read Charles Tilly’s iconic article War Making and State Making as Organized Crime (1985), in which Tilly makes a compelling case to view state making and war making as organized crime, and puts states and organized crime on a same continuum. Tilly argues that, essentially, states can be seen as nothing more than very successful mobs. To make this case, Tilly presents some symmetries between historical European states and organized crime activity. This article was a reading assignment for a class I was a teaching assistant for, and given that my responsibility for the class included leading a recitation during which I honed in on some concepts, I decided to take Tilly’s arguments and make a parallel case, that is, how organized crime can be seen as a proto-state, a state-in-the-making.

This idea did not come from nowhere. I had recently finished re-watching The Sopranos (1999-2007), the popular HBO show which centers Tony Soprano, the head of the DiMeo crime family in Newark, NJ. The show contrasts crime and violence on one end, with wholesome family life and Tony’s visits to his therapist as he attempts to deal with his panic attacks. A violent mob boss with mommy issues — it can’t get better than this! Re-watching The Sopranos, I realized that so many ideas from political economy are brilliantly depicted in this show — so much so that I’m entertaining the idea of one day teaching a whole course on the political economy of the Sopranos. This article is the first step.

States & Power

Tilly talks of 4 essential activities that states do, ones that he argues mobs do as well. First, you have war-making, which Tilly defines as “eliminating or neutralizing their own rivals outside the territories in which they have clear and continuous priority as wielders of force“ (p. 181). This is indeed a central activity of the DiMeo family as well — they control Newark and within it they have a clearly demarcated territory from which they can extract rents: they racketeer businesses, set up monopoly over garbage collection to extract money from city contracts, whenever there is some illegal revenue-generating activity that pops up in Newark, Tony’s crew is there to “offer protection“ and get a cut in return. When the territory is threatened or challenged, war ensues. In Season 6, the Lupertazzi family based in New York beats up one of the garbage collectors that is under Tony’s protection, and a war between the families ensues that must be resolved. The negotiations of these conflicts resemble peace talks, where losses are cut and borders redrawn, a parallel masked perhaps only by the dark abandoned warehouses where they meet, and the thick working class Italian-American accents in which the “diplomats“ speak.

Tony, Silvio, and Paulie shoot Pussy

Second, we have state-making, defined by Tilly as “eliminating or neutralizing their rivals inside [the state’s] territories“ (p. 181). Now, everyone who has seen the Sopranos knows that this is much of what Tony’s crew does. Once an illegal business opens shop, like a basement gambling operation, the crew is there to undercut their operations by absorbing them into their own family. More commonly, it is eliminating rats. Throughout the show the Feds keep attempting to flip close allies of Tony, to get intel that would eventually bring down the illegal operation. Tony and his crew have to kill many of their closest allies and beloved characters in the show, from their best friend Pussy, to the fiancé of Christopher, Tony’s protégé.

Tilly lists protection as a third essential role of the states, defined as “eliminating or neutralizing the enemies of [the state’s] clients“ (p. 181). Tony’s crew protects all of the businesses they tax, both because of their loyalty towards them and because of their need to protect their revenue sources. In Season 1, Christopher — Tony Soprano’s protégé — intercepts and kidnaps the booty of a truck that is under the protection of Junior, Tony’s uncle. Junior goes to Tony, for what is essentially private property protection and justice, whereby Christopher needs to pay not only for the damages done to the driver, but also a negotiations fee to Tony and Junior for settling the dispute. Similar disputes, whereby someone under the protection of the mob gets hurt and now needs justice, are resolved constantly in the show.

Finally, states perform extraction, which Tilly defines as “acquiring the means of carrying out the first three activities“. Extraction may be familiar to many if we instead use “taxation“. In Season 4, Episode 1, Tony says the iconic quote: “Shit runs downhill, money goes up. It’s that simple.“ The mob taxes all businesses under their protection. Within the mob’s hierarchy top dogs get cuts of everything that happens below them, like the ultimate pyramid scheme. One of the hardest problems for historical states to solve was observing and taxing economic activity (income, wealth, etc.), which is hard as individuals and firms can often hide their activities. This problem is less difficult for the mob, where the smaller scale ensures that most stuff is either observable, or can be easily found out. For example, Christopher’s truck robbery from Season 1 is initially concealed from the higher-ups, in hopes to remain untaxed. However, that comes to bite Christopher in the ass when Tony finds out that he attempted to do something without giving him a cut.

Tilly is right. Tilly is right to point out the “Double-Edged Protection“ of states (mobs) — the hand that protects and keeps you safe can often turn on you and harm you if you “cross it“. This is clearly seen many times in the show as the mob’s violence makes the protected the victims. Tilly is also right to point out that states (just like mobs) creates the violence that they are supposedly protecting from. For example, Tony Soprano burns down the restaurant of his childhood best friend Artie Bucco, presumably for good reasons, but also with the effect of bringing Artie closer to the fold, under his protection. And finally, Tilly is also right about the analogy between States and Organized crime. In Season 2 Episode 9, challenged by Dr. Melfi, Tony goes on a tirade where this analogy is clear from his point of view:

“Excuse me, let me tell you something... When America opened up the floodgates and let all us Italians in, what do you think they were doing it for? 'Cause they were trying to save us from poverty? No, they did it because they needed us. They needed us to build their cities and dig their subways, and to make them richer. The Carnegies and The Rockerfellers: they needed worker bees and there we were. But some of us didn't want to swarm around their hive and lose who we were. We wanted to stay Italian and preserve the things that meant something to us: honor and family and loyalty... and some of us wanted a piece of the action. Now we weren't educated like the Americans, but we had the balls to take what we wanted! And those other folks, those other... the, the JP Morgans, they were crooks and killers too, but that was the business right? The American Way.”

If we listen to Tony carefully, we see that Tilly is right, but he’s not completely right. State making is more than just killing rivals inside, it is not just motivated by force and profit. Listen to Tony: “…some of us didn't want to swarm around their hive and lose who we were. We wanted to stay Italian and preserve the things that meant something to us: honor and family and loyalty... and some of us wanted a piece of the action.” Piece of the action is secondary! States have an ideology, and “good” states need to have legitimacy. So, what about legitimacy? Tilly mainly sidesteps issues of legitimacy, as irrelevant to the fact of monopolization of violence and force that the state wields.

States & Legitimacy

In Economy and Society (1922), sociologist Max Weber talks about 3 types of legitimate power. While he defines these types as distinct, these are often intertwined, and a legitimate source of authority possesses multiple or all of them, even if one is dominant. When authorities have these sources of legitimacy, states (mobs) can perform their functions better, use less coercion, and achieve better outcomes. When Tony’s legitimacy is higher, he and his mob do better and are less threatened by inside and outside rivals. The infant state that is Tony Soprano’s mob is a great case study to analyze Weberian sources of legitimacy. And Tony possesses all Weberian sources of legitimacy.

First, there is traditional authority. This source of legitimacy in this type of authority rests on custom and tradition, and is often inherited. A common example is a Monarch or a Theocrat for the state, and the father for the family. Tony Soprano is a father to two families in the show, his own literal family and the DiMeo crime family. As viewers we are invited to see Tony as a devoted Father to both of these families, who loves and protects his children, and wants what is best for the family. There is a sense of “sacredness“ to “the way things have been done“ in the mob world…honor, and family, and loyalty. Often mobsters of the times past are invoked to  Daddy is home and he will take care of you.

Second, Weber theorizes of legal authority. The legitimacy of this type of authority rests on rules and procedures, and bureaucracies or democratically voted governments are an example of the legal type of authority. Now, the DiMeo family is certainly not a democracy or a bureaucracy, at least not with all its apersonal relationships that these evoke. But that is not to say that there are no rules and procedures. The mob is full of rules of conduct and even rituals that formalize power, like the initiation rite into a “made men“. Tony rules by consensus from his close allies, the “made men“, and he is finely attuned to rule in ways that his subjects deem fair and proper. For example, when Tony B, Tony’s cousin kills a “made man“, Tony initially tries to evade punishment for his cousin out of loyalty to his own blood family. But as the rest of the made man show disapproval at Tony’s attempt to skirt the rules, Tony takes a shotgun and blasts a hole into his own cousin — no one is above the rules, not even Tony Soprano!

Tony Soprano, the devoted Father

Christopher’s initiation as a “made man“

Finally, Weber talks of the charismatic authority, which I believe is Tony’s largest source of legitimacy. This authority rests on the leaders exceptional character and qualities, and common examples are prophets and revolutionaries. Tony is widely liked not only for his charisma, but also for his cunning and bright mind, his ability to think several steps ahead, and his ability to convince and mobilize those around him for a common goal. This helps him expand and stabilize his family’s empire, bringing everyone more prosperity. In short, he is the best man for the job!

How did states arise? Why are they so prevalent as a way of organizing society? Is it because of a monopolization of power, through violence and crime? Or was it through ideology, through narratives and stories that lend legitimacy to the states? If we buy the analogy between states and organized crime, and if we buy my claim that The Sopranos can teach us something about this, then maybe the answer is some combination of the two.