Criminal organizations and corruption in Italy

Corruption is a commonplace phenomenon inherently coupled with the traits of the collective endeavours, and constantly diffused in the human society regardless of political regime, typologies of institutions, presence of public or private corporations. The main objective of the work consist in understanding the links between organized crime (Mafia, Camorra, Ndrangheta) and the phenomenon of corruption in Italy. The paper is articulated as follows. We depart by carrying out a critical analysis of the corruptive phenomenon, through the identification of three main different levels of analysis. Then we proceed in the explanation of the purpose of the paper and description of methodology adopted. After that, we analysed the entity and the density of corruption in Italy, also referring to the relationship between criminal organizations and corruption. Finally, we propose some concluding remarks on the systemic traits of corruption in Italy.