“From a culture of lawfulness to an economy of legality,”

Abstract

Some time ago, I happened to be talking with a friend, an entrepreneur who had been extraordinarily successful and enjoyed the greatest respect and prestige in all circles of his country. At a certain point we came to talk about tax evasion and he began to say: "I never want to forego my right to pay taxes, because .... " "Right?" I interrupted him. "Perhaps you wanted to say duty. The duty we all have to contribute to the functioning of the state" "No, no," he exclaimed. "I really did mean to say right. And do you want to know why? If it were only a duty for me, I would tell you that I pay my taxes because I think it right to comply with my civic obligation, or because I prefer to be at peace with my conscience, or even because I fear the consequences of being discovered. Now, it is quite right that I pay my taxes for all these reasons. But, aside from that, I do it above all because I find it convenient. In my business, you see, confidence is a fundamental component of success. If I were a tax dodger (and in our environment the suspicion makes the rounds in double quick time), I would not be surrounded by the confidence that people have in me today. They would think that if I defraud the inland revenue, I could also try to swindle them. That would be a disaster for my business. I just don't want to lose their trust and confidence. That is why I claim to have the right to respect the law." While my friend was talking, I could not help feeling that, quite apart from his hyperbolic use of the term right in place of the more proper interest, the concept was of somewhat limited validity on the general level. In the greater part of cases--so I thought--tax evasion does not produce image losses such as to have negative repercussions of an economic character; sometimes it is even seen as a sign of cunning. Thus--I said to myself--whenever this advantage is lacking, for the taxpayer there remains only the duty to pay what is due from him. And yet, the very moment in which my friend finished explaining the theory of his right to respect the law, I suddenly realized just how perfectly it fitted the situation in which an entire population, an entire island, namely my Sicily, had come to find itself. For more than a century Sicily had cohabited with the Mafia, a criminal organization that, as it became stronger and stronger, had come to pervade and SICILIAN PERSPECTIVES