The mafia can be understood as an industry selling private protection

Evidence

But what exactly is the mafia? The hypothesis developed here is that the mafia is a specific economic enterprise, an industry which produces, promotes, and sells private protection. — Diego Gambetta, The Sicilian Mafia The Business of…, 10

Categorization

• XREF: Directly instantiates Gambetta’s own model, which the reader is testing against Puzo’s narrative; connects to Milgrom’s private-judge analysis and Schelling’s commitment mechanisms. — connects to: Mafia protection makes collusion more likely, elaborate, and enduring — Diego Gambetta, The Sicilian Mafia The Business of…, 521; Mafia membership is a trading license allowing both purchase and sale of protection — Diego Gambetta, The Sicilian Mafia The Business of…, 655; A free market in quality can dissolve the demand for mafia protection (+14 more)
• DEFINE: The book’s core definition: mafia as protection industry, not criminal subculture or violence monopoly.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Diego Gambetta, The Sicilian Mafia The Business of…, 10

Broader Connections

• The mafia is a protection business, not a parallel state #corroborates (0.98) — Diego Gambetta, The Sicilian Mafia The Business of…, 26
• The mafia’s competitors are ideologies offering free or state-backed protection #expands (0.85)
• Mafia markets are distinguished by demand for protection, not general prosperity #expands (0.82)
• Mafia protection of thieves both encourages crime and drives victims to seek protection #expands (0.80)
• Mafia enforcement makes distrust rational and blights mutual-benefit competition #expands (0.80)
• Mafia protection tracks opportunity, not moral principle or universal rules #expands (0.78)
• Mafia discretion is analytically identical to corporate industrial-secret protection #responds-to (0.75)