James,
As I recall, by 1995 the received wisdom in anti-mafia circles (eg Pino Arlacchi, Leoluca Orlando, the Milan Pool) was that the high profile killings of Falcone and Borsellino and the unmasking of Andreotti as the Sicilian Mafia's reference point in Rome following Salvo Lima's assassination (and the decline of his tendenza in the shortly to implode Christian Democrat Party) was a strategic turning point. The Mafia had overreached itself and the resultant backlash meant that it would be obliged to renounce the periodic murder of public officials and its power to impose the pizzo would progressively diminish. Events like the arrest of Toto Riina after decades or latitanza suggested that this analysis might, after all, be true.
Alas, it would seem that such optimism was misplaced. Indeed, to be fair Arlacchi cautioned against premature optimism the last time I saw him. And reports after Berlusconi first came to power that Forza Italia aimed to assume the vacant role of political reference point in Rome for the Mafia's interests, reports that pointed out that Mafia money built Milano Due and Berlusconi's gardener (Mangano) was a mafioso, all suggested that Il Gattopardo would again be proved right, that everything would change in order that everything should remain the same.
The latest wire tap law would appear to show that schizophrenia about the mafia is alive and well in Italy and currently living in the Palazzo Chigi.
Regards
David (Colvin)

Thank you for pointing out the irony of the Berlusconi government's boasting of its successes in arresting the foot soldiers of the Mafia even as so many of his party leaders and even members of the government are either under indictment or, like Senator Dell'Utri, convicted of Mafia association, a crime introduced into Italian legislation under pressure from the U.S. Incidentally, whereas Chamber of Deputies president Gianfranco Fini agreed to attend today's commemoration of the slain magistrate Paolo Borsellino in Palermo, Berlusconi's Justice Minister Angelino Alfano declined.
Judy Harris