What Is the Mafia? and Men and Things of Sicily offer a rare glimpse into how power functions when formal institutions fail. In these sharp, ground-level studies, Gaetano Mosca—senator, jurist, and founder of elite theory—examines the mafia not as a criminal outlier, but as a substitute for the state. Rich in insight and detail, these essays reveal the logic of informal authority—still relevant wherever law weakens and other systems step in to rule.