At the opposite extreme this portrait is rejected in equally holistic fashion. The mafia is perceived as the conspiratorial fabrication of prosecutors and police in search of culprits, journalistic hacks in search of scoops, or politicians in search of ammunition to level at their opponents—a view that is in itself rather conspiratorial. Among the supporters of this view are certain British historians (see Finley et al. 1986: 182-183; Duggan 1989: 1-12). Since the nineteenth century, however, there have also been moderates arguing for less extravagant interpretations. Pasquale Villari writes in Lettere meridionali (1878): "This mafia has no precise statures; it is not a secret society; one could almost say that it is not even an association"

Diego Gambetta, The Sicilian Mafia The Busi…, loc. 259