Institutional Mistrust, Instrumental Trust, and the Privatization of Law: The Mafia as a Territorial Ruler

Clotilde Champeyrache

Journal of Economic Issues, 2022, vol. 56, issue 4, 945-958

Abstract: This article explores the link between trust and law through the prism of the mafia phenomenon. Mafias spread in a context of “endogenous mistrust” and manage to privatize law by imposing an unwritten system of rules in their territory. This alternative system of law has consequences in terms of distorted access to economic opportunities for non-Mafiosi as it is oriented in favor of its affiliates and external backers. It also leads to the emergence of negative social capital benefiting Mafiosi but unable to create relationships based on genuine trust.

Date: 2022
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/00213624.2022.2111139 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:mes:jeciss:v:56:y:2022:i:4:p:945-958

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/MJEI20

DOI: 10.1080/00213624.2022.2111139

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Journal of Economic Issues from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().