Land redistribution outpaced protection provision, driving the mafia’s rise

Evidence

During the nineteenth century the South experienced social transformations which made the lack of a legitimate central authority more serious than ever before and subjected the long-standing lack of trust to newer and tougher tests. Between 1812 and 1860, according to Mack Smith’s History of Sicily, the number of large landowners in Sicily rocketed from 2,000 to 20,000; and between 1860 and 1900 the number of hectares in private hands increased from 250,000 to 650,000 (Sereni 1971: 276-277). The change was dramatic, and it meant that as land became more available, protection grew more scarce. — Diego Gambetta, The Sicilian Mafia The Business of…, 226

Categorization

• XREF: Directly instantiates the reader’s core thesis: expansion of private property without a legitimate central enforcer raises demand for private protection — connects to Gambetta’s market-for-protection model and Milgrom et al.’s private judges framework.