Structural opportunity for agent abuse does not explain why agents actually seize it.

Evidence

Economic analyses of agency relationships imply that such abuse is economically rational and, indeed, inevitable under certain conditions (see, e.g., Jensen and Meckling 1976, p. 313). But equating the structural opportunities to abuse agency and the actual seizing of these illegitimate opportunities obscures the difficult task of accounting for the latter (something to which neither economists nor sociologists have made much of a contribution). — Shapiro, Susan P., The Social Control of Impersonal Trust, 37

Categorization

• DEFINE: Draws a sharp conceptual line between the structural conditions that make abuse possible and the behavioral fact of abuse occurring — a key framework distinction.
• XREF: Echoes the reading purpose: Raskolnikov’s structural ‘opportunity’ to commit an unwitnessed crime vs. the actual act — opportunity does not explain the deed. — connects to: The same factors enabling agency relationships create the opportunity for agent abuse. — Shapiro, Susan P., The Social Control of Impersonal Trust, 33; Risk-spreading strategies like securitization exacerbate agency abuse rather than reducing it. — Shapiro, Susan P., The Social Control of Impersonal Trust, 38; Mafia protection tracks opportunity, not moral principle or universal rules (+4 more)
• DEEPTHINKING: A genuinely unresolved theoretical gap flagged honestly: neither economics nor sociology has explained the translation from ‘can abuse’ to ‘does abuse.‘

Related

• The same factors enabling agency relationships create the opportunity for agent abuse. (similarity 0.82)
• The same features enabling trust also enable agent abuse. (similarity 0.79)
• Risk-spreading strategies like securitization exacerbate agency abuse rather than reducing it. (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Organizational reward structures tie agents’ interests to the organization, not clients #expands (0.85)
• Mafia protection tracks opportunity, not moral principle or universal rules #expands (0.80)
• Mafia organizational structure is not governed by any ineluctable dynamic #expands (0.80)
• Cartel organization is not an automatic equilibrium of protection markets #expands (0.80)
• Men cannot be collective authors of their actions because circumstances decentre them #corroborates (0.75)