Origins of the Sicilian Mafia: The Market for Lemons

Re:Origins of the Sicilian Mafia: The Market for Lemons by hutzlibu on Monday January 15, 2018 @06:42AM (#16149926)

"Herschel I. Grossman (1995) and Stergios Skaperdas (2001) both consider mafia as an alternative enforcer of property rights. Using a model with two actors (a self-governing community and mafia) and potential robbers, Skaperdas (2001) shows that in the absence of an enforcer of property rights, mafia can represent a sort of second best solution"

I do agree, that mafia act as a government. But there is still quite a difference to a democratic government. It is more a olygarchy/despotism.

But I believe our roots of government back in the middle ages, when feudals conquered new peasants to profit from them, were very alike. And there might be still characteristics in our institutions from that legacy. People definitely view it that way, when they pay taxes ...

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Re:Origins of the Sicilian Mafia: The Market for Lemons by erikb on Monday January 15, 2018 @09:20AM (#16150634)

Absolutely agree. Mafia is not a democratic type of government. And even most despotic governments are probably better than the average mafia, for the people they rule. Reason being that you can't rule a big, stable country if you are too tyrannic. Other government-types will compete with you, and even foreign governments will try to take your land and people.

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Re:Origins of the Sicilian Mafia: The Market for Lemons by cs1717p on Monday January 15, 2018 @06:00PM (#16154227)

Democratic != good.

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Re:Origins of the Sicilian Mafia: The Market for Lemons by erikb on Tuesday January 16, 2018 @03:13AM (#16156567)

Also agreed. However: democratic >= mafia

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