Underground Economy

There exist underground economies all over the world.
Does the existence (or flourish) of underground economies relate to strength of formally legitimised governing institutions?

In the case of Italy, the boundaries between formal and informal seem obscure.
It means that some distinctive figures originated in informal sectors have acquired influential positions in formal sector.

For Japan, they sustain themselves especially in entertainment or amusement businesses as determining facilities of market prices.

In African countries, organised crimes are often committed supported by people who have generally seized formal resources of power.

Chinese mafia seems active because of its survival. In other words, it operates as if it were running its businesses.

In sum, there seem to be some causal relationships between formal and informal powers.

When we look at the situation of Britain, dominant organisations acting in underground economies seem less evident. From my personal impression, it stems from historical facts that very strong (even strongest in the world at some points of the history) formal authorities have ruled out informal entities which could influence formal power relationships.

I assume that necessity of underground economies could be categorised into roughly three:

1. those necessary for maintaining overall social stability;
2. those active as remnants left as historical discourse; and
3. those only occasionally operating.

I am going to look up some academic literature which analyses the issues related to underground economies...