Empirical investigation of the problem of free riding in the context of public goods: the case of northeastern Turkey

The literature reports that individuals living in repressive environments tend to avoid participating in collective actions, in particular because of the risks of confrontation with intimidation, arbitrary arrests, violence, and even death. However, some researches has begun to document the psychosocial mechanisms that could motivate them to overcome these risks: feeling of outrage generated by state repression, identification with civil society and moral obligation to resist, for example. The present study, conducted in the context of authoritarian democracy, is situated in this line of research by proposing anomic threat, considered as the perceived disintegration and deregulation of society, as an incentive variable of the propensity to protest against the system in a repressive environment. It suggests that when individuals perceive the degradation of society from the points of view of its leadership and values, they may realize that inaction is likely to accentuate it and may be inclined to participate in collective actions with a view to restore the fractured social structure and leadership, despite the risks of repression from the governing system. In this logic, the hypothesis tested predicts that perceived anomic threat reinforces the relationship between perceived political intolerance and participation in anti-system collective actions in the context of authoritarian democracy. 275 Cameroonians, aged between 17 and 47 years (M. = 24.24; S.D. = 5.71) agreed to participate in the research. Measures focused on perceived political intolerance, perceived anomic threat, perceived efficacy of collective actions, participation in anti-system collective actions, distrust and grievances towards political authority. The results show that when participants are experimentally confronted with the degrading character of society, their perception of anomic threat reinforces the relationship between political intolerance and participation in anti-system collective actions, due to the activation of negative emotions and the perceived efficacy of the said actions. The theoretical implications of these results are discussed.

Determinates of participation in collective action of forest coffee management in Kafa zone, Southwest Ethiopia

This article presents the results of a study of the relationship between the level of social capital of young people in Vologda Oblast and their participation in collective actions. Over the past decades, research in the field of social capital has become more widespread in the scientific community, however, the coronavirus pandemic that has swept the world has additionally actualized the problem of studying the features of the formation of social ties (which are its main source) and finding sources of intangible resources to help the social organism. The information base for the study was a mass public opinion poll conducted by the Vologda Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences. An indicator model for measuring social capital was used to analyze the data. During the study, it was found that the pandemic had a significant impact on the level of social capital not only of the entire population of the region as a whole, but also of young people in particular. At the time of the study, the situation with the level of social capital began to gradually improve, but still has not returned to pre-Covid levels. The existence of a noticeable connection between social capital and participation in collective actions has been confirmed. People with a high level of social capital are noticeably more willing to engage in collective activities and more likely to find like-minded people to organize joint actions, while those with a low level of social capital are more likely to expect that someone else will solve social problems without their involvement. People with high levels of social capital are not only more likely to talk about their readiness for collective action, but they also notice specific cases of participation in real collective action much more often. While self-interest remains the most common motivator for participating in collective action, as respondents build up social capital, they increasingly engage in collective action for reasons unrelated to self-interest.

This article presents the results of a study of the relationship between the level of social capital of young people in Vologda Oblast and their participation in collective actions. Over the past decades, research in the field of social capital has become more widespread in the scientific community, however, the coronavirus pandemic that has swept the world has additionally actualized the problem of studying the features of the formation of social ties (which are its main source) and finding sources of intangible resources to help the social organism. The information base for the study was a mass public opinion poll conducted by the Vologda Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences. An indicator model for measuring social capital was used to analyze the data. During the study, it was found that the pandemic had a significant impact on the level of social capital not only of the entire population of the region as a whole, but also of young people in particular. At the time of the study, the situation with the level of social capital began to gradually improve, but still has not returned to pre-Covid levels. The existence of a noticeable connection between social capital and participation in collective actions has been confirmed. People with a high level of social capital are noticeably more willing to engage in collective activities and more likely to find like-minded people to organize joint actions, while those with a low level of social capital are more likely to expect that someone else will solve social problems without their involvement. People with high levels of social capital are not only more likely to talk about their readiness for collective action, but they also notice specific cases of participation in real collective action much more often. While self-interest remains the most common motivator for participating in collective action, as respondents build up social capital, they increasingly engage in collective action for reasons unrelated to self-interest.

Farmland scale management represents an inevitable trend toward global modern agriculture. In the new development context, the key to solving the tough problem of the insufficient supply of rural public goods is to effectively improve the enthusiasm of farming households to participate in rural collective action in countries with a small arable area per capita, such as India, China and countries in Eastern Europe. This paper adopts the Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework in the context of a land system with Chinese characteristics, and uses sample data of 3663 rural households in 17 provinces to study the impact of farmland scale and various relevant systems on farming households’ participation in rural collective action. We found that the advantages of collective action, such as reduced production costs, enhanced risk resistance and improved production efficiency, can offset the disadvantages incurred by free-riding behavior, and the expansion of farmland scale can significantly facilitate rural collective action. Additionally, as the farmland scale expands, stable farmland tenure and reasonable farmland tenure transfer can help to optimize the allocation of arable land resources, increase investment, and reduce free-riding behavior, thus effectively stimulating farming households to actively participate in collective action. However, since socialized agricultural services lead to the separation of the suppliers and the users of rural public goods, the expansion of farmland scale shows a negative effect. Therefore, in the context of the continuous migration of the rural population to cities, a stable farmland tenure adjustment mechanism should be established, while the balance between farmland tenure transfer and socialized agricultural services, in pushing forward rural collective action, should be emphasized, so as to ensure the effective supply of rural public goods in propelling farmland scale management. Especially in promoting the development of socialized agricultural services, more attention should be paid to specifying the responsibilities and obligations of the main provider of commercialized services in the supply of rural public goods.

Although much is known about why people engage in collective action participation (e.g., politicized identity, group-based anger), little is known about the psychological consequences of such participation. For example, can participation in collective action facilitate attitude moralization (e.g., moralize their attitudes on the topic)? Based on the idea that collective action contexts often involve a strong social movement fighting against an immoral adversary, we propose that participating in collective action facilitates attitude moralization over time. By integrating the moralization and collective action literatures, we hypothesized that participation in collective action moralizes individuals' attitudes over time because it politicizes their identity, enrages them vis-a-vis the outgroup, and/or empowers them to achieve social change. We tested these hypotheses in a 2-year, five-wave longitudinal study (N = 1,214) in the contentious context of the Chilean student movement. We examined within-person (and between-person) changes over time and consistently found that participation in collective action predicted individual changes in moral conviction over time through politicized identification and group-based anger toward the outgroup. Furthermore, moral conviction predicted participation in collective action over time-an effect consistently explained by politicized identification. These findings are the first to show that (a) participation in collective action moralizes individuals' attitudes because it politicizes their identity and enrages them vis-a-vis the (immoral) outgroup and that (b) moralization in turn helps to better understand sustained movement participation. Theoretical implications for the literature on moralization and collective action are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

Enhancing sustainable food security requires agricultural production systems to change in the direction of higher productivity and to mitigate lower output variability in the face of climate extreme related hazards such as land degradation. Adoption of resilient food production system capable of withstanding disruptive events is therefore needed to stabilize farmers’ productivity. Consequently, participation in collective actions has been touted as an effective approach to enhance cooperation among individuals within a social system and to advance adoption of climate-smart farming techniques (conservation agriculture). This study investigated this perspective using heterogeneous treatment effects estimation to analyze the data collected from 350 smallholder farmers selected randomly from the South–West Nigeria. The average treatment effects on the treated estimate revealed that participation in collective actions had adoption-increasing effect for each unit variation in propensity score rank, although, negative selection effect was suspected. Similarly, information acquisition, access to extension service and frequency of visit by extension workers are significant features that predict adoption in the study area. However, rosenbaum sensitivity analysis test revealed that the increasing effect of participation in collective actions on conservation agriculture adoption is insensitive to unobserved bias that may double or triple the odds of exposure to treatment. Hence, the average treatment effect on the treated estimate is a pure impact of the participation in collective actions. The study concluded that farmers with high propensity to participate in collective action have high likelihood to adopt climate-resilient farming practices compared to the counterparts with a lower propensity of participation in collective action.

Journal Article Reconceptualizing Collective Action in the Contemporary Media Environment Get access Bruce Bimber, Bruce Bimber 1Bruce Bimber (PhD, Massachusetts Institute of Technology) is a professor in the Department of Political Science and the Department of Communication at the University of California, Santa Barbara.. 4may be directed to Bimber at Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Andrew J. Flanagin, Andrew J. Flanagin 2Andrew J. Flanagin (PhD, University of Southern California) is an associate professor in the Department of Communication at UC Santa Barbara. Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Cynthia Stohl Cynthia Stohl 3Cynthia Stohl (PhD, Purdue University) is a professor in the Department of Communication at UC Santa Barbara. Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Communication Theory, Volume 15, Issue 4, 1 November 2005, Pages 365–388, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2885.2005.tb00340.x Published: 10 January 2006

We examined which factors promote Chinese citizens' participation in collective action at the individual level. Using data from the 2010 China General Social Survey, we applied logistic regression analysis to explore the relationships between unfair experience, interests involved, political efficacy, and the likelihood of participation in collective action. Results showed that people who have experienced unfair treatment from the government are more likely than other people are to participate in collective action. If people think that collective action is closely related to their own interests, they are more likely to participate than are those who do not think so. Also, people with high internal political efficacy are more likely to participate in collective action than are those with low internal political efficacy. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

PurposeThis study aims to analyze the influence of farmers’ degree of participation in collective action on their adoption decisions and waiting time regarding soil and water conservation (SWC) measures.Design/methodology/approachThe Probit model and Generalized Propensity Score Match method are used to assess the effect of the degree of participation in collective action on farmers’ adoption decisions and waiting time for implementing SWC measures.FindingsThe findings reveal that farmers’ engagement in collective action positively influences the decision-making process regarding terrace construction, water-saving irrigation and afforestation measures. However, it does not significantly impact the decision-making process for plastic film and ridge-furrow tillage practices. Notably, collective action has the strongest influence on farmers’ adoption decisions regarding water-saving irrigation technology, with a relatively smaller influence on the adoption of afforestation and terrace measures. Moreover, the results suggest that participating in collective action effectively reduces the waiting time for terrace construction and expedites the adoption of afforestation and water-saving irrigation technology. Specifically, collective action has a significantly negative effect on the waiting time for terrace construction, followed by water-saving irrigation technology and afforestation measures.Practical implicationsThe results of this study underscore the significance of fostering mutual assistance and cooperation mechanisms among farmers, as they can pave the way for raising funds and labor, cultivating elite farmers, attracting skilled labor to rural areas, enhancing the adoption rate and expediting the implementation of terraces, water-saving irrigation technology and afforestation measures.Originality/valueDrawing on an evaluation of farmers’ degree of participation in collective action, this paper investigates the effect of participation on their SWC adoption decisions and waiting times, thereby offering theoretical and practical insights into soil erosion control in the Loess Plateau.

This paper investigates the effect of land scale heterogeneity on participation by farmers in collective action and the level of erosion control, and its mechanism of action, using survey data from 45 villages and 1,149 households in a typical erosion area of the Yellow River basin. The results show that there is a non-linear, U-shaped relationship between land size heterogeneity and farmers’ participation in collective action and the level of erosion control, respectively, and that collective action plays a mediating role in the U-shaped relationship between land size heterogeneity and level of erosion control. This implies that maintaining a homogeneous distribution of land among households within the village collectivity and a large disparity in land allocation both promote participation in collective action and thus improve the level of erosion control. Using an endogenous regression transformation model to deal with endogeneity and robustness tests, the findings remain robust. In the mechanism analysis section, variables for the level of trust and co-ordination of interests are introduced and a non-linear, U-shaped relationship is found between land size heterogeneity through the effect of both on collective action. This suggests that the allocation of land resources as described above can co-ordinate the level of trust and the direction of interests among farmers, leading to conditions for co-operation and thus facilitating farmers’ participation in collective action.

Globalization challenges the ability of contemporary public administration to encourage citizen participation in collective action through behaviors such as tax compliance and contributions to public goods. The authors introduce a new individual‐level approach to globalization, arguing that people vary in the extent to which they are globalized and that an individual's level of globalism (ILG) reflects attitudes and dispositions that influence the way he or she resolves the social dilemma of participation in collective action (i.e., the decision to contribute versus follow a “free‐ride” strategy). Using a four‐country sample, the article examines the relationship betweenILGand collective action participation decisions in three behavioral experiments. Findings support the hypothesis that regardless of country‐level globalization, a more globalized individual complies less willingly with tax codes, donates less to local nongovernmental organizations, and prefers to adopt a free‐ride strategy in a public goods game. The consequences for public administration are discussed.

Punitive sentiment as an anti-free rider psychological device

Earlier work on the transformative potential of women's groups has investigated the struggles and narratives of the group as a whole, with limited exploration of the linkages between women's participation in larger collective action and their individual experiences of intra-household gender relations. Thus, very little is known about the nature of individual agency exercised by women within their interpersonal relations with family members after entering social movements and labor unions. This paper examines such issues by describing the lived experience of collective action and analyzing SEWA's history in organizing women for minimum wages in the agarbatti (incense sticks) sector. It highlights how adherence to gendered norms also referred to as “maryada”—implying social boundaries relating to women's identities as family and community members within patriarchal institutions—influence the entry, exit and experience of union membership and collective action. Women are able to participate in collective action, once unionists acknowledge these social boundaries that poor working women deal with via gendered roles, familial expectations and social networks. My findings illustrate the importance of organizing and labor movements in providing women access to state and market based social security measures. Intra-household and collective security perspectives used in the paper also highlight how women exhibit agency to derive security by using union activities and services to strengthen their positions within collective familial units.

Effects of farmland use rights transfer on collective action in the commons: Evidence from rural China