Land reform in Sicily dramatically expanded landowners while shrinking available protection
Evidence
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
Category: Factual Claims
- XREF: Direct evidence for the Gambetta model that rising property dispersion outpaces legitimate enforcement, creating a protection vacuum the mafia fills.
Related
- Land redistribution outpaced protection provision, driving the mafia’s rise (similarity 0.92)
- Early mafia flourished in wealthy areas, not backward ones (similarity 0.80)
- Sicily’s robbery share vastly exceeded its population share in 1990 (similarity 0.79)
- The mafia has remained confined to western Sicily for over a century (similarity 0.78)
- Sicily had 24 percent of Italy’s robberies with 9 percent of its population (similarity 0.78)