We propose a dynamic, probabilistic model of collective action. While agents’ incentives are approximately captured by the normal form suggested in Palfrey and Rosenthal (1984), agents’ behavior is only boundedly rational. The model deÞnes a discrete time, discrete state Markov process. We identify the process’ unique limiting distribution and show that in the long-run even in large populations...

Collective Action and Agroindustries Two fundamental global economic tendencies have caused a shift in interest towards promoting rural agroenterprises and agroindustrialization to combat rural poverty. Increasing income levels and demographic changes, i.e. increased female labor force participation, has fueled demand for high-value and processed products. Structural adjustment and liberalizaCo...

We analyze the e ect of inequality in the distribution of endowment of private inputs (e.g., land, wealth) that are complementary in production with collective inputs (e.g., contribution to public goods such as irrigation and extraction from common-property resources) on eÆciency in a simple class of collective action problems. In an environment where transaction costs prevent the eÆcient alloc...

We elucidate the dynamics of ongoing collective action among intentional agents with diverse beliefs and imperfect information. Their decisions on whether or not to contribute to the collective good depend not only on the past but also on their expectations as to how their actions will affect those of others. We show that in attempts at collective action the onset of overall cooperation can tak...

Traditionally political scientists have conceived of political participation as oriented toward the political sphere, particularly the political system, and involving people who join together in various kinds of groups to make claims on government. Real-life examples as well as empirical and theoretical studies in the social sciences show that it is high time for us to rethink this view of poli...

Collective-action problems pervade all societies as well as ecological systems used by humans. Substantial evidence has accrued during the last several decades that human actors are able to solve some (but definitely not all) collective-action problems on their own without external rules and enforcement imposed from the outside. In this article, I review some of the structural variables that ha...

This paper proposes a new measure for a group’s ability to lead society to adopt their standard of behavior, which in particular takes account of the time the group takes to convince the whole society to adopt their position. This notion of a group’s power to initiate action is computed as the reciprocal of the resistance against it, which is in turn given by the expected absorption time of a r...

We propose an improved theoretical approach to the rich variety of collective action now present in public life. Toward this end, we advance a conception of collective action as communicative in nature, and offer a two-dimensional model of collective action space, comprising dimensions for (a) the mode of interpersonal interaction and (b) the mode of engagement that shapes interaction. We illus...