Political violence diminishes a candidate pool
Of course, strategic political violence does nothing but destroy the potential political life in Italy. Even worse, if this is the political background there, possible candidates and educate individuals will be only discouraged from entering this field. In a study conducted from 1985 to 2011, it has been shown that over 1,500 southern municipalities had very strong anti-mafia law enforcement policies, and in that period, they managed to reduce the presence of mobs.
In the first elections right after a sudden drop in organized crime, the study uncovered the fact that politicians that were active in those cities were 18% more educated. So, as expected, politics is considered to be more appealing when it is less influenced by criminal organizations, which means attracting more qualified candidates.
How organized crime has a negative impact on citizens
These findings usually shed light on how organized crime can affect millions of Italians, who have nothing to do with mobs’ illegal business. However, targeted political violence made by the mafia does nothing but distort the whole electoral process and reduce the quality of the candidate pool.
Of course, this issue doesn’t happen only in Italy. During Mexico’s 2018 election season, no less than 132 politicians and political operatives were brutally murdered. Drug cartels are considered to be behind many of these assassinations, even if the crimes remain unresolved up to this day.
Also, Colombia has suffered from targeted violence that completely decimated its politics.
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