High-ranking politicians proposed institutionalizing mafia-style allocation methods

Evidence

Riccardo Misasi, minister for the Mezzogiorno in 1990 and leader of the Christian Democrats in Calabria, volunteered a solution to the problem of widespread bid rigging: I suggested to some regions, and to my [sic] Calabria in particular, an automatic mechanism which eliminates every discretionary element and establishes an automatic rotation among firms and consortiums selected strictly on the basis of the fairness of their behavior. It is a rule which, if generally applied, would violate the Constitution … But can we not make an exception here in the fight against the mafia and corruption? This rule… would obliterate every chance of corruption, of anomalous relations between entrepreneurship and political power. (Repubblica, May 19, 1990) … In short, if mafia methods are bad, let us institutionalize them! — Diego Gambetta, The Sicilian Mafia The Business of…, 582

Categorization

Category: Contrarian or Surprising Claims

• CANDY: A cabinet minister seriously proposing to bypass the Constitution to fight corruption by copying mafia methods is a striking, tweetable irony.