A thriving economy alone cannot explain mafia origins.

Evidence

In short, this view makes sense. Oddly enough, however, it makes too much sense. If these conditions are all that is needed for the mafia to originate, why then is the mafia not present wherever there is a thriving economy? If urban-coastal markets so fostered the growth of the Sicilian mafia, why did it not flourish in other urban areas of southern Italy? Why, for instance, does the tradition not exist in towns such as Messina and Siracusa—or for that matter towns throughout southern Europe—which are not ostensibly more impoverished? Conversely, if the profits provided by a bustling economy are an essential prerequisite, how could the mafia have emerged in the poorer towns of the interior such as Caltanisetta and Agrigento, the provinces with the highest concentration of violent activity (Lupo 1988: 468)? — Diego Gambetta, The Sicilian Mafia The Business of…, 223

Categorization

• XREF: While ostensibly contradicting the reader’s chosen Gambetta framework, this paragraph actually forces nuance: it interrogates the purely economic account and points toward reputation-network conditions that align with Milgrom’s private-judge analysis.