This study investigates the mechanisms under which radical collective activism become politically salient. Although there have been numerous explanations for radical activism, little agreement exists concerning the specific mechanisms which underlie this process, especially in deeply divided societies and in those facing [perceived or real] political threats. I identify three important clusters...

Many models proposed to study the evolution of collective action rely on a formalism that represents social interactions as n-player games between individuals adopting discrete actions such as cooperate and defect. Despite the importance of relatedness as a solution to collective action problems in biology and the fact that most social interactions unavoidably occur between relatives, incorpora...

Institutional change, collective action, and cooperation are closely related. The connection between institutional change and collective action comes from the fact that both democratic political institutions and norms of behavior are collectively chosen: they are the result of a collective action process. Collective action, however, requires a solution to the cooperation problem, for it is usua...

Observation of leadership in small-scale societies offers unique insights into the evolution of human collective action and the origins of sociopolitical complexity. Using behavioural data from the Tsimane forager-horticulturalists of Bolivia and Nyangatom nomadic pastoralists of Ethiopia, we evaluate the traits of leaders and the contexts in which leadership becomes more institutional. We find...

In order for rational choice theory (RCT) to explain the production of collective action, it must be able to distinguish between two behaviorally identical possibilities: one, that all of the agents in a group are each performing behaviors in pursuit of a set of individual actions; and two, that all of those agents are performing those behaviors in pursuit of a collective action. I argue that t...

Explaining collective action is still one of the most challenging problems for the social sciences. The purpose of this paper is to describe how the main ideas on the subject have evolved over the years and additionally, to illustrate how our understanding of the problem has grown. It starts by describing perhaps the most influential model in the literature, namely Olson’s model of collective a...

The problem of collective action is usually identified with social dilemmas. A wider notion of the term collective action problem is introduced, as dilemmas are not the only problems to arise in collective action. The article first presents a typology of collective action problems based on matrix game analysis. Five types are distinguished: distribution, defection, co-ordination, disagreement, ...

In recent years decentralized development approaches have gained prominence in the agricultural sector. A host of community based watershed management projects have been implemented that encourage community organizations to undertake management of previously government controlled irrigation systems and forests. Community organizations have been given the responsibility of managing water distrib...

A new instanton solution is found in the quantum-mechanical double-well potential with a four-fermion term. The solution has finite action, S = −m3 3λ − ( mA 4 √ 2λ + g 261m 8960 ) ǫξiξjξkξl, where A is a bosonic collective coordinate, ξi, i = 1, ..., 4 are fermionic collective coordinates and g,m and λ are coupling constants. We explain why in general the instanton action can depend on collect...

Leadership has often been proposed as a tool to aid in problems of collective action and social interaction. This is further supported by the presence of strong leaders in various social movements throughout history. In this paper, I represent social interaction with an n-person prisoner’s dilemma, where monitoring is imperfect monitoring and there is some form of communication available. I wil...