Abstract
Most analyses of collective action proceed by citing a set of rationalizing reasons why each individual agent in the group would participate in the action. This explanatory strategy is appropriate for an important class of collective actions, deserving detailed study. However, there is another important class of collective actions that is necessarily overlooked by what I shall call “rational choice accounts.” These are cases in which a collective action is performed despite the fact that there are structural reasons why the individuals cannot rationally justify their contributory actions. In this paper, I discuss varieties of collective action, focusing on those which cannot be explained by appealing to the rationality of the individuals involved. I go on to suggest some ways in which we might profitably study this important class.KeywordsCollective ActionRational ChoiceBulletin BoardDownside RiskRational ExplanationThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
Published Version
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