Complex historical causes must be decomposed into independently testable problems

Evidence

The origin of the mafia is generally treated as a single simple question. But much clarity is to be gained by breaking it down into a set of specific problems. These problems are interrelated, of course, but need not be addressed at the same level of abstraction. Rather, they identify increasingly complex processes of cause and effect which cannot be understood as a whole without first being disentangled and individually examined. Such separation of the issues also ensures that answers provided at one level can be independently tested at another. — Diego Gambetta, The Sicilian Mafia The Business of…, 193

Categorization

• XREF: Method parallels the analytical decomposition approach of Milgrom et al. on the Champagne Fairs, which the reader is using in parallel to understand private-enforcement institutions. — connects to: Contention’s regularities need historical, not just mechanistic, explanation.