Over-inclusive membership expansion contributed to the Mafia war of the early 1980s
Evidence
Striking the right balance was a tricky business. Bontade’s family, for instance, probably paid the price for being excessively accommodating; the size of its membership, which in the course of the 1970s increased from 50 to over 160 (see Chapter 5), was certainly among the causes of the mafia war of the early 1980s. — Diego Gambetta, The Sicilian Mafia The Business of…, 647
Categorization
Category: Causal Relationships
- XREF: A striking quantity/quality trade-off: ‘making’ more members to guarantee behavior dilutes the screening function of initiation, undermining the very guarantee — a twist on the standard assurance story.
- DEEPTHINKING: The admission-dilution dynamic — initiation guarantees behavior only because it is scarce and selective; over-supplying membership debases the bond and destabilizes the whole ordering system.
Related
- Rapid membership growth destabilized Bontade’s consensual authority within the family (similarity 0.80)
- Membership reverses its value as a dealer’s wealth grows (similarity 0.79)