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Mafia in the Ballot Box

2013; RELX Group (Netherlands); Linguagem: Inglês

10.2139/ssrn.2351928

1556-5068

Giuseppe De Feo, Giacomo De Luca,

Culture, Economy, and Development Studies

We study the impact of organized crime on electoral competition. In a theoretical model where parties compete for mafia support, we show that (i) the strongest party is willing to pay the highest price to secure mafia services; (ii) the volume of electoral trade with the mafia increases with political competition and with the efficiency of the mafia organization.