Should We Love or Loathe the Mafia?

Is the Mafia like a state that uses violence to enforce its agenda? Or is it more like a private business that specializes in the market provision of security? Robert Murphy reviews a book on the topic by Diego Gambetta and concludes that the author has everything right except the fundamental analytics concerning what distinguishes public and private provision. The violence of the black market would largely vanish if its operations were normalized within a market setting. FULL ARTICLE