Copyright 2008. No quotation or citation without attribution.
IR/PS CSR Case #08-10“Addio Pizzo”: Can a Label Defeat
the Mafia?
By: Chiara Superti

GRADUATE SCHOOL OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS AND PACIFIC STUDIESUNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO

Prepared for Professor Peter Gourevitch
Edited by Kristen Parks
Corporate Social Responsibility
Fall 2008

Abstract
The Mafia in Sicily has important socio-economic effects on the local population. In
particular, this paper focuses on the practice of asking for a “protection tax”, or pizzo,
paid by around 70% of the businesses in the region. In 2005, a group of Palermitan young
professionals created an organization named Addiopizzo (goodbye pizzo) with thespecific goal of fighting the phenomenon of money extortion. They invented a label thatcertifies businesses of any kind that can prove they are not paying the pizzo. Using theresources offered by the market and the institutions, involving consumers, businesses, thepolice and schools, Addiopizzo was able to start a successful new trend of pizzo-freeconsumption.

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2

Table of Contents
Introduction....................................................................................................................... 3
Methodology ...................................................................................................................... 6
The Origins of the Organization...................................................................................... 6
Anti-Mafia movements: a Collective Action Problem.................................................... 7
A Strategy to Overcome the Collective Action Problem ............................................... 9
The First Step: Consumers.............................................................................................. 9
The Business: the Label and the Process of Certification ............................................ 11
The Institutional Side: The Monitoring Process ........................................................... 14
The Outreach Program ................................................................................................. 15
An Example of Credibility Building.............................................................................. 16
Publicity and Visibility .................................................................................................. 17
Transparency and Various Sources of Funding............................................................ 18
Endorsement by the Consumer Organizations.............................................................. 19
The Idealistic Component.............................................................................................. 20
Beyond Sicily: Taking the Cause Outside the Border of Sicily .................................. 21
Weaknesses of the Project .............................................................................................. 21
Conclusions...................................................................................................................... 22
Discussion Questions....................................................................................................... 24
References........................................................................................................................ 25
Appendix A: CONSUMERS’ MANIFESTO ............................................................... 27
Appendix B: “Addiopizzo” BALANCE SHEET 2007................................................. 28
Appendix C: Statistics from SOS Confesercenti.......................................................... 29

Copyright 2008. No quotation or citation without attribution.

3…La mafia è un fenomeno umano ecome tutti i fenomeni umani ha unprincipio, una sua evoluzione e avrà
quindi anche una fine. […The Mafia
is a human phenomenon and as all
the human phenomena it has abeginning, an evolution and it will
also have an end.]
GIOVANNI FALCONE1

Introduction
The Mafia in Sicily and in other Southern regions like Calabria (‘ndrangheta), Puglia(Sacra Corona Unita) and Campania (Camorra), has been rooted in society since before
the creation of the Italian State. Many scholars2 identified historical reasons for thisphenomenon in the Spanish Habsburg’s domain since the late 16th century and in a lackof effective political rule over the territory that created a sense of the absence of the statethat has continued until today. The Mafia built a monopolistic control of the society inall of its aspects, from the economy to politics, through the use of violence andcorruption. On the political side, the existence of illicit connections between the Italianpolitical world and the Mafia is well known. A research made by Eurispes3 in 1994
revealed that the Mafia controlled 400,000 votes in Sicily, one tenths of the total. Thismeans that the Mafia’s preferences may have a decisive influence in the electoral results.

1

Giovanni Falcone was a famous judged killed by the Mafia in 1992.
Gambetta, Diego (2000) ‘Mafia: The Price of Distrust’, in Gambetta, Diego (ed.) Trust: Making andBreaking Cooperative Relations, electronic edition, Department of Sociology, University of Oxford,
chapter 10, pp. 158-175,
3
Cowell, Alan, “Italians Voting, With Mafia, a Top Issue”, The New York Times, March 27 1994
2

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4

However, the economic impact of the Mafia phenomenon is no less worrisome. In fact,according to a report of the Confesercenti (an association representing small and medium
enterprises of retail, tourism and services), the Mafia is the main enterprise of Italy withprofits of around 30 billion Euros. Usury provides the main monetary inflow, but“racket,” the act of asking for “protection money” or pizzo that Mafia applies to any
economic activity, is in second place with 10 billion Euros (see Figure 1).4

Figure.1: List of illegal activities and amount of money involved in that activity. The second column refers
to the proportion of those activities that are managed by the Mafia.

Typology of
Illegal activity

Usury
Racket (pizzo)
Steals androbbery
Fraud
Smuggling
Counterfeit
Illegalconstructions
Agromafia
Leasing andcontracts
Gambling
TOTAL

Amountofmoney
involved(inbillions
Euros)
30
10
7%
managedby theMafia

shopkeepers
involved

36%
95%
15%

150,000
160,000
90,000

4.6
2
7.4

20%
80%
70%

500,000
15,000

13

20%

7.5
6.5
2.5
90.5

80%
45%

Source: SOS Confesercenti/ Translation by Chiara Superti

4“La mafia e’ la prima azienda italiana. Per SOS Impresa 90 mdl di utili all’anno.”, La Repubblica,
October 22nd, 2007.

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5

Besides representing one of the main sources of financial
support of the criminal organization, the phenomenon of the
pizzo also has important social and economic consequences inSicily. In fact, it provokes an increase in the prices of the
products or services that need to absorb the cost of the pizzo
and also incentivize the use of cheaper illegal labor. Lastly theamount paid to the Mafia greatly decreases the actual profit of the business and it can
impact seriously the sustainability of small enterprises.
For many years the reaction of Sicilians was one of silent acquiescence. Many of thosecitizens that did not accept the status quo decided to emigrate to the North. Few stayed
and fought against the Mafia, often paying high costs for that decision and becoming
modern heroes like Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, judges at the Palermo court
who were killed by the Mafia in 1992. This tendency, however, is slowly changing andone of the outstanding examples of a new trend in anti-mafia movements is Addiopizzo.
This organization was created three years ago by a group of young Sicilians. Through a
joint effort between consumers and business, this organization works on the demolitionof the important source of income that the pizzo represents for the Mafia in a town like
Palermo, where around 80% of the businesses pay this “tax.” The NGO created a label tocertify that the specific shop, restaurant, or bank does not pay the pizzo to the local
mobsters. Today the program is limited to the area of Palermo, but the cities of Catania
and Naples are activating similar initiatives.

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6

The list of pizzo-free businesses includes more than 300 shops, restaurants, bars,
companies, banks, enterprises and so on.

Methodology
For this research, the author was able to combine a wide spectrum of resources: from theofficial website of the organization (www.addiopizzo.com) to the numerous newspaper
articles that talked about Addiopizzo’s case since 2004; from direct contact with amember of the organization that responded to an interview to part of the literature about
the Mafia in Sicily. Abstracting from the great amount of journalistic information
available, this paper presents the successful model that the organization was able to apply
despite the sensitivity of the themes and introduces some of the weaknesses that
Addiopizzo has yet to solve. As far as the specific literature about similar cases goes, theauthor was unable to find any other similar approaches to the fight against organizedcrime.

The Origins of the Organization
The organization started in 2004 in Palermo, Sicily. On the morning of June 29th, all overthe city of Palermo, people found small stickers attached to their doors, windows, andgarages. On the stickers there was only one sentence “un intero popolo che paga il pizzo
e’ un popolo senza dignitá’” (an entire population that pays the pizzo is a population
without dignity). For days the police investigated about who displayed the stickers andwhy.

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7

This was the first step of the organization Addiopizzo. The publicity, the confusion andnoise created by the stickers forced an entire population to talk about one of the biggest
taboo of the Sicilian society, the pizzo. The seven members of the organization started
meeting regularly in June 2004, but Addiopizzo was officially founded in 2005. At thedate of November 2008, the number of active members of the organization exceeded
fifty.
In 2007 another organization, Libero Futuro (Free Future), named in honor of Libero
Grassi, an entrepreneur killed by the Mafia in the 90s because he refused to pay the pizzo,
was created as a spinoff of Addiopizzo. This new organization intends to complement the
pizzo-free label NGO with the legal and practical support for those entrepreneurs that
decide to denounce the “racket.”Anti-Mafia movements: a Collective Action Problem5
As Giovanni Falcone said in a famous interview, “the Mafia is a human phenomenon andas all human phenomena it has a beginning, an evolution and it will also have an end”
and therefore we need to be able to apply to this phenomenon the same tools we use forany other negative externalities caused by humans, such as global warming and pollution.
In these cases, people decide to coordinate in an attempt to remedy a human produced
plague and to provide important public goods for future generations. The types ofcoordination over issues like these have been various and have involved market actors as

5Olson, The Logic of Collective Action, Public Goods and the Theory of Groups

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8

well as institutions. Addiopizzo is applying a similar approach in the fight against the
Mafia
The logic behind the foundation of Addiopizzo is, in fact, the idea that the fight against
the Mafia cannot be conducted by single individuals alone, but requires a collective
action. Isolation makes individuals much more vulnerable, while the affiliation with aformal group provides a sort of defense mechanism. In fact, once the collective action
problem is overcome and a quite large number of people decide to take a risk together
and rebel to the Mafia, the criminal organization finds it harder to respond efficiently.
The difficulty of reaction of the criminal organization in front of Addiopizzo’s
provocation, in fact, is a consequence of the tactic that made the Mafia so successful overthe centuries: the strategy of silence. The Mafia has been operating in the silent
acquiescence of the population and of the institutions, which knew but pretend not to.
The silence was broken by isolated punishments toward “rebels” or components of other
Mafia families. The goal, however, was to maintain the population subdued through fear.
What Addiopizzo does is breaking the barrier of terror and creating a collective
opposition to the Mafia. Retaliation toward single components of the NGO not only
would fail to solve the problem since there would be another member ready to take theplace of the victim, but would also have the potential of creating a huge unrest of the
population against the Mafia. Moreover, by attacking representatives of a popular
grassroots movement the criminal organization might transform the victims into new
popular heroes, fertilizing even more the environment for a general uprising. An active

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9

discontent among the Palermitans would damage the criminal organization’s interests,
more than what the decrease of profit, due to the Addiopizzo campaign, is doing.

A Strategy to Overcome the Collective Action Problem
The NGO Addiopizzo was able to overcome the collective action problem thanks to an
original strategy that touches different aspects of the fight against the Mafia. By
exploiting all the resources that the market and the institutions provide, Addiopizzo
synchronizes the efforts of consumers, business and institutional organisms toward thesame goal. This coordination among different parties with aligned interests in fighting the
Mafia revealed to be a winning tactic.
Furthermore, the organization works intensively in an attempt to develop a morefavorable environment for the flourishing of its initiative through a process of educating
and informing civil society.
The First Step: Consumers
Addiopizzo realized that in its campaign the first party that needed to be reached out towas the consumer. Sicilian customers share an important part of the extra costs that pizzo
produces, in the form of higher prices imposed by the shopkeepers in response to theextortion of money. Moreover, consumers are the easiest subject to incubate in the antipizzo campaign because their participation does not face either significant risks orelevated costs. In addition, consumers are not asked to incur in the expenses of creating a
structured formal group, already provided by Addiopizzo. Given the fact that the public
good that consumers aim to obtain, the end of the Mafia, is highly valuable and the costsCopyright 2008. No quotation or citation without attribution.

10of achieving it are rather low, it appears evident that involving citizens/consumers
represents the key element and the first logical step in the attempt to overcome thecollective action problem.
The NGO became conscious that only after collecting evidences of consumers’ demand
for a pizzo-free consumption, it would succeed in persuading the business side to adhere
to the program. Indeed, through the evidence of a clear positive response of the citizens,
not only were the businesses ensured that their activity would financially survive, butthey would also realize they are not alone in the battle against the pizzo.
With the goal of creating this consumer support base, the organization drafted a
Manifesto:“Aware of the gravity, complexity and capillary spread of the phenomenon of “racket”
of the extortions in the Sicilian economic and productive reality, I claim that the entire
society, economic and cultural network in which the economic actors work can and must
play an active role in the fight against the pizzo;
Therefore, as a citizen and consumer aware of my power and responsibility, I commit
myself to choose products and services provided by entrepreneurs, shopkeepers andprofessionals that do not pay the pizzo or that, having been victim of the request of pizzo,
denounced it.
I also require that the institutions and the police renew the protection of those that had
the courage to denounce it.

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Finally, I urge all the political forces to a stronger sensitivity toward the issue of the“racket”.” (Translation by Chiara Superti, original version available in the appendix)
The Manifesto, available on-line, has been signed by around 9000 consumers. The
organization was able to collect thousands of signatures proving the existence of a strong
popular will for change in the town of Palermo.

The Business: the Label and the Process of Certification
The businesses face a different kind of problem than the one beard by consumers since
their risks in participating to Addiopizzo initiative are actually elevated. In the past, theMafia reacted violently against those that refused to pay the pizzo, burning buildings oreven killing “rebellious” entrepreneurs.
However, also the inducements are more significant in the case of business. By adhering
to Addiopizzo project, the shopkeepers achieve a private good, the termination of thepayment to the Mafia, in addition to the public good of ending the Mafia’s domain. The
issue, therefore, in this case is different from the previously analyzed consumers’
collective action one. It should rather be classified as a problem of cost-benefit
assessment. In other words, in the businesses’ calculations, the incentives to participate
to Addiopizzo need to prevail over the fear and the personal danger to persuade thebusinessman to participate. This would realistically happen only once a sense ofcommunity and collective fight convince the business world that being part of
Addiopizzo had actually decreased the risks of a Mafia’s retaliation. The evidence of astrong support of the consumers functions as a form of assurance in that sense.

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By stimulating consumers’ demand and business interest, the organization created thespace in the market for a tangible and recognizable sign of the respect of those specificstandards of legality cited in the Manifesto. Addiopizzo created a label that would
symbolize the compliance to standards of legality and propose it to the local businesses.
This particular kind of label is carried by the retailers and producers and not by the
product themselves. Similarly to other labels, Addiopizzo ensures the consumer of a
specific social responsible behavior of the businessman. However, differently from manyother labels, it does not produce a clear increase of the prices of the product/services andit has an ambiguous impact on consumers’ shopping patterns6. In spite of the fact thatmany Sicilians do not support the Mafia, not all of them are ready to stand up to the
Mafia. The label may deter highly risk-adverse consumers. The effect of the label onsales has not been studied yet. Therefore, Addiopizzo, a socially responsible label, may,or may not, lack the potential economic incentive that other labels (i.e. Fair trade) seem tohave.
This feature of the label also importantly decreases the risk of free riding. Showing thelabel and keeping paying would not provide significant benefits. The certain economic
benefits of the label, in fact, comes from the cut on the costs represented by stopping thepayment of the pizzo, more than the boost of the sales. It is quite difficult to believe thatthe label would cause such an increase in sales to counterbalance the costs of the pizzo
and even producing a surplus of revenues. Furthermore, even in the event of a significant
increase due to the label, the new profit margin would probably stimulate the Mafia tosignificantly increase also the pizzo.

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As is the case for any other labels, Addiopizzo is assigned to the economic activities after
a process of certification. The certification is made through a third party entity: theInvestigation Commission, composed at the moment by Law professors, lawyers, theDean of the Department of Law at the University of Palermo, members of Comitato
Addiopizzo, the president of Libero Futuro and various entrepreneurs. In the past,journalists, priests and the chief of Police participated.
The businesses voluntarily submit their case to the commission in order to obtain thelabel. The body analyzes the cases. The first step is an interview with theentrepreneur/businessman to evaluate his/her motivations and personal experience. In asecond passage, the commission investigates the legal status of the economic activity
through the support of legal documents. It will also research the history of the business,verifying the untainted behavior of the owner/manager through different sources such as
newspaper articles, police reports and so on.
The last step is the signature of a formal commitment not to pay the pizzo and to run thebusiness in complete respect of the law. The goal of this document is to link even more
the business’s image to the compliance with the legality standards of the label. A failure
to meet with the requirements not only will provoke its exclusion from the list of pizzo free businesses and the loss of the certification, but it will also strongly affect consumers’
trust toward the entrepreneur, damaging his/her profits. Since 2005, the commission had
to reject less than ten shopkeepers.

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The Institutional Side: The Monitoring Process
The organization declares often in its website that failure to comply with legality willlead to an exclusion of the business from the list. However, a clear process of continued
monitoring is not implemented. In fact, according to some representatives of the
Comitato Addio Pizzo interviewed, the organization relies, as a “fire alarm,”7 on the jobof the police. In the case that an investigation clarified that one of businesses carrying thelabel is actually paying the Mafia or collaborated with it, the business will be excluded
from the list. The key question, therefore, becomes whether the police are actually areliable and prompt third party providing information about the compliance of thebusinesses.
Despite the tainted fame of elements of the State institutions the Sicilian police seem tohave proved, in past years, that at least at the high level, it does not get corrupted by thepower of the Mafia. It, in fact, won some important battles against the criminalorganization by arresting important representatives. For example, in April 2006,
Bernardo Provenzano, the head of “Cosa Nostra” since the beginning of the 80s, wasarrested; in February 2008, in cooperation with the New York police forces, the police
captured around 90 Mafia’s representatives. In particular, an important victory of theState on the “racket” has been the arrest of Salvatore and Sandro Lo Piccolo (father andson) in November 2007. Following this arrest a list with all the businesses paying the
pizzo to the “senior Mafia boss” was released. Furthermore, in the notes “pizzini”

7

Roderick Kiewiet and Mathew McCubbins, The Logic of Delegation, Chapter 2

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15

exchange by the “boss” and his “picciotti”8, twenty of the shopkeepers of Addiopizzo
were inserted as “rebels” and a punishment for them was already planned.
This last example proves the effectiveness of police work, which seems to represent asource of control of the validity of the label. However, it does not account for thenecessity of a continuous form of monitoring. In fact, although the final goal of the NGO
and the one of the police coincide, they are pursued through different means andtherefore the verification of the compliance of the businesses over time is only asecondary effect of the police work. For this reason, some businesses could restart
paying the pizzo and continuing for months or years before being discovered.

The Outreach Program
The last aspect of Addiopizzo strategy consists of a variety of activities that theassociation organizes to inform and educate the citizens, in particular, focusing onschools and on the students’ development of a concept of legality.
Addiopizzo intervenes in the school through its members organizing small workshop forthe students and teaching them about legality. These initiatives are essential to the futuresustainability of Addiopizzo project for various reasons. First of all, the organization
through education aims to form a new class of citizens and shape the attitude of the future
generations. Secondly, by informing the children, Addiopizzo can outreach the parents
and hope to influence their consumption behavior. Finally, these interventions in the8

Term that refers to the low level cooperators of the Mafia structured system.

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16

school allow the members of the association to verify the response of the community to
the initiative. Along the same line, Addiopizzo organizes school trips to visit the “antimafia” sites. The schools where Addiopizzo intervenes present their projects, developed
in response to the visit, every may since 2006, at the Pizzo-Free party, where all the
shopkeepers and various companies show their products.
The cooperation with the school does not stop at the educational level. Schools areplaying an active role in supporting the fight against the “racket”. In October 2008,
Addipizzo obtained an agreement with Guido Di Stefano, director of the Scholastic
Regional Office, in which it is stated that every company that provides any kind of
product to Sicilian schools will have to certify not to pay the pizzo. The certification will
be done by the company itself but it will have legal value. A failure to comply with thedeclaration will cost the company three years of total exclusion as a supplier of food or
any material to Sicilian schools. The agreement does not require the participation in the
Addiopizzo’s initiative, but it asks the entrepreneurs to sign a very similar statement oflegality. An important detail of the agreement is that those signing commit themselves
not to pay the protection money from the moment they sign. There is no reference to thepast. This gives an opportunity to many that did not have the strength to rebel to the
Mafia in the past, to actually change.

An Example of Credibility Building
In the past four years, Addiopizzo has moved from being an unknown small association
to a popular and respected organization able to build a strong base of credibility and tomobilize thousands of citizens that strongly believe in it. The success of Addiopizzo

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derives from a combination of different factors. First of all, from the origins of theorganization the founders achieved an incredible visibility in the local and national media
thanks to the stratagem of the posters and stickers anonymously posted around the town.
This led to a level of popularity that increased dramatically the attention of thecommunity on the case and, therefore, increased the number of potential “fire alarms”
that could denounce a lack of compliance with the legality standards declared by theorganization.
Secondly, the group was able to conquer the trust of many supporters thanks to its
transparency. On the website, it is possible to access the complete list of members of theNGO, components of the certifying commission, and the organization’s budget. The
sources of funding are clear and reported on-line. Furthermore, the organization was able
to construct a net of support and endorsement including trustworthy and famous
consumer associations. Finally, the lack of clear economic incentives and the high risk ofparticipation diminish the danger of having free riders cheating and exploiting the imageof the organization.

Publicity and Visibility
Since its origins with the mysterious episode of the stickers, Addiopizzo has been
constantly calling the attention of not only local media, but also national and eveninternational ones. The organization was able to quickly gain a citation in a majority of
the articles that deal with the problem of “racket” in Sicily, becoming a point of referenceCopyright 2008. No quotation or citation without attribution.

18

for the fight against it. Such popularity is fundamental for the survival of the organizationand for the success of the label.
In fact, the visibility becomes a sort of protection against possible retaliation by the
Mafia, since an attack on Addiopizzo would turn into a big scandal and bring thesituation at the attention of the entire population. This is not in the interests of the Mafia
that wants to run its business in the background without interferences. As we previously
said, publicity is not something that appeals to the criminal organization.
On the other hand, popularity enhances the risks of being discovered in case of a lack ofintegrity. Therefore, as this has not happened along the years, the credibility of theorganization increases substantially and with it the trust in the label Addiopizzo.

Transparency and Various Sources of Funding
Another important sign of the organization’s credibility is the complete transparence ofthe organization. Everything, the complete list of Addiopizzo’s members, the list of the
shopkeepers and companies participating, the list of components of the Investigation
Commission, is available on-line. Furthermore, the budget from the previous year withthe outflows and inflows recorded can also be found on “Addiopizzo.org”.
The organization does not depend on only one source of funding, but on a combination ofvarious monetary inflows. In fact, it relies on the spontaneous donations of consumers,Copyright 2008. No quotation or citation without attribution.

19

who can also decide to divert part of their tax payment (5/1000)9 toward Addiopizzo; onother NGOs from the entire Italian territory donating parts of their funding to Addiopizzo
and on writers (Giusy La Piana) and publishers (Coppola Editori) devolving part of theproceeds from the sales of their books to the cause of the anti-pizzo movement.
A combination of different sources of financial support is the best solution to protect theindependent nature of any association. In particular, given the specific kind of issues that
Addiopizzo is fighting against, the financial independence becomes a vital element ofcredibility.

Endorsement by the Consumer Organizations
Another important element that contributed to build the successful sense of credibility
toward the community is the endorsement of popular consumer organizations. In fact, on
many of the posters and stickers appear the names of Adiconsum, Lega Consumatori,
Confconsumatori, Unione Nazionale Consumatori, Aduc Funzione Sociale and Sicilia
Consumatori. Among these, the National Union of the Consumers is the oldest and mostrooted in the Italian society. It was founded in 1955 by Vincenzo Dona, with the goal ofprotecting the rights or the consumers. The support given to Addiopizzo initiative by
these consumers’ associations adds an important credibility source to the strategy of theNGO.

9In Italy, it is possible to divert a proportion equal to 5/1000 of your tax payments to chosen non-for-profit
organizations.

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The Idealistic Component
The target group for the organization is the part of consumers, tired of the Mafia’s control
in Sicily and willing to participate in an effort to defeat it. The described sample of the
population recognizes Addiopizzo as the embodiment of its desire for a change. Hence, itappears evident that there is a strong idealistic component in the support that this NGO
receives. Many of the consumers believe in it since they believe in the existence of acommon base of interests and goal, shared10 with Addiopizzo. The credibility ofAddiopizzo is not only built on factual observations, but is driven by the superior goal of
the initiative.
As we saw in a previous section (see page 20), the nature of the label disincentives thebusiness to cheat. Given the lack of certainty of a financial return and the actual personal
danger faced by the shopkeepers when rebelling against the Mafia, it is hard to argue foran elevated probability for free riders. Furthermore, the idealistic component of the NGO
activity highly amplifies the costs of cheating. In fact, in the case that a shopkeeper chose
to free ride, it might face serious costs if it is identified as not complying. Cheating in thiscontext, with such as a sensitive issue at stake, will have strong negative returns on theimage of the activity. It would, indeed, directly signal that the specific shopkeeper isactually paying the pizzo and also that he/she has been dishonestly exploiting the name of
Addiopizzo.

10

Lupia and McCubbins “The Democratic Dilemma: Can Citizens learn what they need to know?”
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998

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21

Beyond Sicily: Taking the Cause Outside the Border of Sicily
The model of Addiopizzo is starting to expand across the Southern Italy, with the launchof a branch in Catania in 2006 and with the flourishing of a similar initiative in Naples.
The organization has also started a series of projects and activities to increase theeffectiveness of the label. One the most interesting development in that direction is thepromotion of the idea of free-pizzo tourism, a form of tourism where only economic
activities certified by Addiopizzo are involved, from restaurant to hotels. As a parallel tothe concept of ethical and sustainable tourism that has been developing all over theworld, the NGO wants to stimulate a similar phenomenon toward the legality/pizzo-free
tourism. The innovative part of this project is that it would take the commitment for a
pizzo-free consumption outside the borders of Sicily and of Italy; tourists coming fromany part of the world will be involved in this trend.

Weaknesses of the Project
One of Addiopizzo’s main strengths, the power of the cause that the label represents, also
embodies the main weakness of the organization. In fact, the focus on the idealistic
aspects of the label prevents it from becoming an exportable model outside the social andpolitical context of Sicily. In particular, more attention should be given to the monitoringprocess. In fact, relying on the national police forces as a fire alarm might not always beeffective and certainly it does not ensure that the cheaters are identified promptly andregularly.

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22

An alternative should not exclude the cooperation with the police in this sector, which is
successful component of Addiopizzo’s model, but it would require a more structured
relationship with the police forces. A system of random controls of the businesses’ cash
outflows to search for unexplained withdrawals could be implemented. This could
happen through the combined investigation of the bank accounts and of the sales recordsof the businesses. In the case of suspicious spending patterns, the investigation could betaken more in depth, with the cooperation of the police.
Another important critique that the organization has received since it started in 2005 isthat the label creates an involuntary division between “good” and “bad.” In fact, overtime those that do not carry the label will be identified as paying the pizzo even if in
reality this is not necessarily true. The members of the organization defend themselves byclaiming that nowhere in the website or in the manifesto there are references to any formof boycott or any other kind of discrimination toward those businesses that do notdecided to participate. However, this issue should be face more seriously by the NGO to
avoid any negative spin-off effects of the Addiopizzo initiative.

Conclusions
Addiopizzo built a successful label able to conquer the trust of consumers thanks to bothits four-fold strategy and to the process of credibility building. Passing from consumers’
demand to the institution of a label, the NGO constructed of a model that effectively
exploits both the market dynamics and the institutional channels. The strategy proposedby this Sicilian NGO is, indeed, a fascinating case study because of the way it created aCopyright 2008. No quotation or citation without attribution.
net of cooperation between institutional actors (police, schools) and market led actors(consumers and business). Addiopizzo proved that the interests of institutions, businessand consumers, which are often seen as mutual exclusive and not aligned, are actuallyperfectly compatible.

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Copyright 2008. No quotation or citation without attribution.

24

Discussion Questions
1) What do you think should be the role of the politics in the contest of fight against
the Mafia? Why do you think that “Addiopizzo” declare in its website that theorganization has no political ties with any party?
2) Can you think about another example of a label that follows a similar strategy tothe one of Addiopizzo?
3) What is the main obstacle on the monitoring process proposed by the author?
How do you think it could be overcome?
4) The police are described as a “fire alarm” in the monitoring process of thebusinesses. What do you think another “fire alarm” could be in the environment
where Addiopizzo works?
5) How do you think that Addiopizzo could respond to the critique of “dividing thesociety between good and bad people”?

Copyright 2008. No quotation or citation without attribution.

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References“La mafia é la prima azienda italiana. Per SOS Impresa 90 mdl di utili all’anno.”, La
Repubblica, October 22nd, 2007
“Scuola: forniture solo dalle imprese "antiracket" - In una scuola di Palermo ha già
funzionato. Settanta le ditte che si sono "autocertificate", Giornale di Sicilia, October 4th,
2008
Claudio Tucci,“Lavori pubblici, Confesercenti: «Le grandi imprese vengono a patti conla mafia»” Ilsole24ore, October 22nd, 2007
Cowell, Alan, “Italians Voting, With Mafia a Top Issue”, The New York Times, 1994
Daniela Geri, “Denunce Antipizzo, aumento del 5%. Finazzo, l’imprenditoria e’ tiepida”,
Quotidiano di Sicilia, October 11th 2008.
Gambetta, Diego (2000) ‘Mafia: The Price of Distrust’, in Gambetta, Diego (ed.) Trust:
Making and Breaking Cooperative Relations, electronic edition, Department of
Sociology, University of Oxford, chapter 10, pp. 158-175(http://www.sociology.ox.ac.uk/papers/gambetta158-175.pdf)
Gambetta, Diego, The Sicilian Mafia: the business of private protection, Harvard
University Press, 1993
Genovese, Maria. “Intervista a Enrico Colajanni”, Nulladiessinelinea, May 24th 2008
Kington, Tom, “Shopkeepers Revolt against the Mafia”, The Guardian, March 8th, 2008
Lucentini, Umberto. “Pizzo alla mafia. L'Ordine dei medici: mai pagato”, IlSole24ore,
November 17th 2007
Norma Ferrara, “Cosa Nostra la Strategia del Rilancio”, liberainformazione.org
Olson, Mancur. The Logic of Collective Action, Public Goods and the Theory of Groups
Rafaenelli, Christine,“De-Mob Happy”, The Guardian, May 17th, 2008Roderick Kiewiet and Mathew McCubbins, The Logic of Delegation, Chapter 2.
Ziniti, Alessandra. “Pressing sulle vittime del pizzo”, La Repubblica, November 7th 2008
WEBSITES OF INTEREST

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www.consumatori.it
www.addiopizzo.org
www.camera.it
www.sosimpresa.it
VIDEO RESOURCES
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4mdrFj6CQM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpR3He-i_vY&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xGludL_FDg
http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=FALCONE+AND+BORSELLINO&emb=0&aq=f&aq=f#q=FALCONE%20AND%20BORSELLINO&emb=0&aq=f&aq=f&start=30
http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=FALCONE+AND+BORSELLINO&emb=0&aq=f&aq=f#q=FALCONE%20AND%20BORSELLINO&emb=0&aq=f&aq=f&start=30
http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=FALCONE+AND+BORSELLINO&emb=0&aq=f&aq=f#q=ADDIO%20PIZZO%20VIDEO&emb=0

Copyright 2008. No quotation or citation without attribution.

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Appendix A: CONSUMERS’ MANIFESTO“Cosciente della gravità, della complessità e della capillare diffusione delfenomeno del racket delle estorsioni nella realtà economica e produttiva
siciliana, ritengo che tutto il tessuto sociale, economico e culturale nel qualeagiscono gli operatori economici può e deve esercitare un ruolo attivo nella
lotta contro il pizzo;
pertanto, in quanto cittadino e consumatore consapevole del mio potere edella mia responsabilità, mi impegno a scegliere prodotti e servizi forniti daimprenditori, esercenti e professionisti che non paghino il pizzo o che,essendo stati vittime di richieste estorsive, ne abbiano fatto denuncia.
Chiedo altresì che le istituzioni e gli organi di polizia rinnovino l'azione atutela della sicurezza e dell'attività economica di chi ha avuto il coraggio didenunciare.
Sollecito, infine, tutte le forze politiche ad un concreto impegno ed a una
maggiore sensibilità verso le problematiche attinenti al racket delle
estorsioni.”(www.addiopizzo.org)

Copyright 2008. No quotation or citation without attribution.

Appendix B: “Addiopizzo” BALANCE SHEET 2007
Source: www.addiopizzo.org
USCITE (OUTFLOWS)

Attività associazione (Activities of the association)
Festa 5-6 maggio 2007 (Party in May)€ 4.628,81

Festa 29 agosto 2007 "Libero Futuro" (Party in August)€ 440,83

Tipografia: materiale informative (informational material)€ 7.200,00

Materiale commercio Equo e Solidale (Fair trade material)€ 13.236,60

Spese legali per costituzione parte civile (legal costs)€ 1.224,00

Rimborso spese prof. Mete (reimburse Prof. Mete)€ 115,83

Gestione ordinaria (General management)
Spese Telefono e ADSL sede (Phone and Internet of the main office)€ 574,13Condominio sede (building payments)€ 746,10

Luce sede (electricity)€ 190,70

Spese Banco Poste (bank expenses)€ 199,80

Spese conto Banca Etica (bank expenses)€ 45,00

TOTALE USCITE€ 28.601,80

ENTRATE (INFLOWS)

Contributi mediante bollettini di c/c (donations)€ 3.418,00

Contributi mediante bonifici (donations)€ 2.073,20

Contributi di liberalità – banchetti (donations)€ 21.402,00

Spese riconosciute per costituzione parte civile (costs recognized after trails)€ 1.224,00

TOTALE ENTRATE€ 28.117,20

Translation: Chiara Superti

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Copyright 2008. No quotation or citation without attribution.
Appendix C: Statistics from SOS Confesercenti(Translation by Chiara Superti)
Amount of pizzo asked in each installment.
Amount of“pizzo”(usually in two
installments per
year)
Shop

PALERMONAPOLI

200-500 euros

Elegant shop or
shop locateddowntown

750-1000
euros

100-200
euros
500-1000
euros

Supermaket
Construction
site

5,000 euros
10,000 euros

3,000 euros

Money involved in specific illegal activities and the proportion managed by the Mafia
Typology of
Illegal activities

Amount ofmoney
involved (inbillions
Euros)% managed
by theMafia

shopkeepers
involved

Usury
RacketSteals androbbery
Fraud
Smuggling
Counterfeit

30
10
7

36%
95%
15%

150,000
160,000
90,000

4.6
2
7.4

20%
80%
70%

500,000
15,000Illegalconstructions
Agromafia
Leasing andcontracts
gambling
TOTAL

13

20%

7.5
6.5
2.5
90.5

80%
45%

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Copyright 2008. No quotation or citation without attribution.

Shopkeepers involved in the problem of money extortion.
REGIONSSHOPKEEPERS
INVOLVED

SiciliaCalabria
Campania
PugliaBasilicata
Lazio
Abbruzzo
Lombardia
Piemonte
EmiliaRomagnaOther

50,00015,00040,00017,000
1,000
6,000
2,000
5,000
2,000
2,000

% OF
THE
TOTAL
70%
50%
40%
30%
10%
10%
10%
5%
5%
5%

20,0006%30