Estate guards become dependent employees, limiting their independence and bargaining power

Evidence

The protection of land and livestock, however, is not necessarily an attractive long-term option for protectors, particularly if the estates are so large that each requires full-time policing. Guards are then likely to become employees of the landowners, and as such they enjoy only limited independence. Their bargaining power depends on the extent to which a landowner is absent and the vulnerability of his property: if either intensifies, then withholding services would inflict greater damage as protectors’ responsibilities increase accordingly. — Diego Gambetta, The Sicilian Mafia The Business of…, 235

Categorization

• XREF: Directly maps the reader’s Gambetta framework: dependence on a single customer caps the protector’s independence — parallels the reader’s interest in when a private enforcer escapes employer capture versus remaining a mere employee.