Gambetta (1988) calls these behaviors the conditions for the Mafia’s existence. They are conditions that Mafiosi, prison designers and guards, political overlords, factory owners, and others can manipulate and contrive to gain or maintain control. The Habsburg rulers and prison overlords have power that they can use to create these conditions so that their power will not be challenged by their wards. Because Habsburg rule produced these conditions, the Mafia was able to rise to power.

XREF: Connects to Gambetta's work on the Sicilian Mafia and the economic/social conditions enabling organized crime.

Russell Hardin, Trust and Trustworthiness, loc. 501