Where la fede privata (the private trust) prevails (Pagden 1988), the family embodies the archetypal protection contract in its elementary form, whereby men are expected to protect weaker members, who in exchange accept the high price of submitting to the will of their protectors. By contrast, where the state protects its individual members effectively, the family to a certain extent forfeits this function, and the price paid by the protectees to fathers, uncles, and husbands is correspondingly less exorbitant. Thus, the linguistic association of the mafia with family and belonging—famiglia, capo famiglia, zio, padre, picciotti, è cosa di, è cosa nostra, appartiene a—is not just analogical but substantively accurate.

XREF: Connects to political theory about the state's monopoly on protection and the social contract tradition, where weak public institutions correlate with strong private patronage networks.

Diego Gambetta, The Sicilian Mafia The Busi…, loc. 150