The mafia’s defining trait is supply-side autonomy, not any single profession

Evidence

This book aims to make a contribution by showing that the parallel between the mafia and the state has clear limits, and, consequently, that the view of the mafia as a legal system in its own right does not actually stand up. … Next, criteria of universality and equality (let alone transparency) are irrelevant: protection is sold on a private basis to individual customers; its price varies according to the customers’ wealth and position, the types of services required, and last but not least the whims of the seller. … The more accurate counterpart to the mafia is a business. — Diego Gambetta, The Sicilian Mafia The Business of…, 26 (#qualifies, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Armed gangs alone did not produce mafias; supplier autonomy was decisive; Mafia professionals are customers, not producers, of protection; The mafia is a protection business, not a parallel state — Diego Gambetta, The Sicilian Mafia The Business of…, 26 (+1 more)

Related

• The mafia is a protection business, not a parallel state (similarity 0.91)
• The mafia protects everyone from peasants to arms dealers (similarity 0.90)
• Mafiosi are fundamentally protection entrepreneurs, not dealers in any protected good. (similarity 0.89)
• American mafia arose where supply met demand, not from export (similarity 0.87)
• Mafia protection treats crime as disputes, not offenses (similarity 0.86)
• The mafia can be understood as an industry selling private protection (similarity 0.86)
• Mafia protection customers range from spot buyers to kin (similarity 0.86)
• Mafia behavior is rational once considered as a protection-selling industry under competitive pressure (similarity 0.85)
• Mafiosi are defined by supplying protection, not by any particular profession (similarity 0.85)
• Armed gangs alone did not produce mafias; supplier autonomy was decisive (similarity 0.84)
• A free market in quality can dissolve the demand for mafia protection (similarity 0.84)
• Private justice predates the mafia by centuries, but not as an enterprise (similarity 0.84)
• Mafiosi are entrepreneurs in protection, not in the goods they protect (similarity 0.83)
• Mafia protection customers span legal and illegal enterprises alike. (similarity 0.83)
• Mafia protection is a demanded commodity substituting for trust (similarity 0.83)

Broader Connections

• Mafia protection tracks opportunity, not moral principle or universal rules #expands (0.78)
• The mafia is a protection business, not a parallel state #qualifies (0.75) — Diego Gambetta, The Sicilian Mafia The Business of…, 26
• Mafia professionals are customers, not producers, of protection #qualifies (0.72)