Agency relationships multiply because scale creates access barriers to information and property.

Evidence

The proliferation of agency relationships derives as much from the increasing scope of production and exchange that creates barriers of access to information and property as from the mere existence of specialization and differentiation and the efficiencies that arise from delegating to agents. Principals entrust agents to bridge the barriers of direct physical access to information and property. — Shapiro, Susan P., The Social Control of Impersonal Trust, 23

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s framing of Raskolnikov’s attempt at an unwitnessed crime: the agent mediates access to information/property the principal cannot reach directly, paralleling how guilt requires an intermediary witness. — connects to: The same factors enabling agency relationships create the opportunity for agent abuse. — Shapiro, Susan P., The Social Control of Impersonal Trust, 33; Agency relationships drive social differentiation and bridge exchange distances — Shapiro, Susan P., The Social Control of Impersonal Trust, 18; The very conditions that create agency also preclude personalizing trust relationships. — Shapiro, Susan P., The Social Control of Impersonal Trust, 40

Related

• The same factors enabling agency relationships create the opportunity for agent abuse. (similarity 0.85)
• The very conditions that create agency also preclude personalizing trust relationships. (similarity 0.84)
• Geographic distance from information sources drives reliance on agents (similarity 0.83)
• Agency relationships drive social differentiation and bridge exchange distances (similarity 0.83)
• The same features enabling trust also enable agent abuse. (similarity 0.82)
• Secrecy and distance structurally prevent principals from monitoring agents. (similarity 0.80)
• Impersonal trust persists despite agency tensions and varies greatly across conditions. (similarity 0.79)
• Trusting agency relationships enables complex social organization. (similarity 0.78)
• Trust is structurally vulnerable because agents can exploit principals’ ignorance and distance. (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• The same factors enabling agency relationships create the opportunity for agent abuse. #expands (0.85) — Shapiro, Susan P., The Social Control of Impersonal Trust, 33
• Agency relationships drive social differentiation and bridge exchange distances #expands (0.78) — Shapiro, Susan P., The Social Control of Impersonal Trust, 18
• The very conditions that create agency also preclude personalizing trust relationships. #expands (0.75) — Shapiro, Susan P., The Social Control of Impersonal Trust, 40