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“Letting George Do It”: Does Olson Explain Low Levels of Participation?
Abstract
This article contributes to the discussion of one component of the “crisis” in political participation by looking at (non‐) participation in groups. The starting point is that political science has a heavy gauge tool for accounting for such low inactivity – Olson’s (196516.
Olson , M. 1965, 1971. The Logic of Collective Action, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. View all references) free rider proposition. The article accepts the influence of Olson, but uses survey data to investigate whether non‐participation is a self‐interested strategy, as he suggests, or whether it reflects broader differences in resources and orientations to political action. While it is often assumed that surveys demonstrating that members join for collective ends “disprove” Olson’s thesis, this article accepts his rebuttal that these surveys of joiners tell us little about those who refuse to join. Olson accepted that (trivial) numbers of members would join (in addition to those seeking selective benefits), but argued that the number joining for collective goods would be dwarfed by those failing to participate. These he assumed to be free‐riding. This article revisits the definition, and supplies theoretically illuminating survey material from non‐members as well as members. The data show little support for the free‐riding instinct. While Olson implies that free‐riding is logical for almost all potential members, this article suggests that non‐participation is not simply a “leftover” from those not mobilized, but is itself based on specific factors.
... Of particular interest are the categories that indicate engagement without participation, as the issue is not so much the valuing of politics than the inability or unwillingness to convert this into political action (at least accord- ing to the survey's definition). In their study of interest groups, Jordan and Maloney (2006; identify a similar intersection called the 'concerned, unmobilised'. Drawing on the same survey as Pattie et al. (2004), they found that only a third of respondents who felt strongly about environmental politics were members of environmental organisations (Jordan and Maloney, 2007: 37). ...
... This final section is divided into four themes that help explain those stu- dents who were found to be caring about politics, but not committed to any sustained forms of participation. As a theoretical concept, the 'caring but not committed' recalls similar intersectional categories such as Eden andRoker's (2000) 'engaged cynic' andJordan andMaloney's (2007) 'concerned, unmo- bilised' insofar as they emphasise dissatisfaction with 'supply-side' factors in the contemporary delivery of politics. However, one should also pay attention to the negative emotions and collective narratives of self-preservation that produce and legitimise non-participation sociologically in everyday life. ...
... This final section is divided into four themes that help explain those stu- dents who were found to be caring about politics, but not committed to any sustained forms of participation. As a theoretical concept, the 'caring but not committed' recalls similar intersectional categories such as Eden andRoker's (2000) 'engaged cynic' andJordan andMaloney's (2007) 'concerned, unmo- bilised' insofar as they emphasise dissatisfaction with 'supply-side' factors in the contemporary delivery of politics. However, one should also pay attention to the negative emotions and collective narratives of self-preservation that produce and legitimise non-participation sociologically in everyday life. ...
Why might some students convert their political interests into activism when others do not? There is a strong need to understand the changing dynamics of contemporary youth participation: how they engage, what repertoires are considered efficacious, and their motivations to get involved.
This book uses the 2010/11 UK student protests against fees and cuts as a case study for analysing some of the key paths and barriers to political participation today. These paths and barriers – which include an individual’s family socialisation, network positioning, and group identification (and dis-identification) – help us explain why some people convert their political sympathies and interests into action, and why others do not. Drawing on an original survey dataset of students, the book shows how and why students responded in the way that they did, whether by occupying buildings, joining marches, signing petitions, or not participating at all. Considering this in the context of other student movements across the globe, the book’s combination of quantitative and qualitative methods, and its theoretical contribution provide a more holistic picture of student protest than is found in existing studies.
... We define interest groups as associations with individuals as members whose activities potentially intersect with public policy (Jordan et al. 2006). We contribute to the literature in three ways. ...
... First, we compare whether interest group membership deviates from the Dutch population on three key aspects: educational level, gender, and migration background. We do not assess the political preferences of individual members of interest groups (e.g., Jordan and Maloney 2006). We examine of descriptive similarities between group members and the population rather than the substantive representation by interest group leaders of the political views of group members. 1 In the next step, we analyze whether groups with members emanating from relatively privileged sections of society (e.g., groups representing mostly highly educated citizens) are more often consulted by politicians than groups representing less privileged citizens. ...
Surveys reveal that there are great differences among citizens in their membership of political associations. Such differences plausibly lead to a better representation of interests of privileged citizens compared to other citizens. We examine the demographic groups (in terms of education, gender and immigration background) that tend to be members of interest groups. We also investigate the relation between the membership profile of associations and the propensity of interest groups to be routinely approached by policymakers. The results of our elite survey of Dutch interest associations indicate that relatively well-educated citizens and men are better represented in interest groups. Patterns of underrepresentation are not further exacerbated by the outreach of policy-makers, except that interest associations with a relatively large female membership are less likely to be consulted.
... The Netherlands is a fairly representative case for Western Europe more broadly, as judged by the conditions that likely determine the level of educational inequality in policy responsiveness. We hypothesize that highly educated citizens are represented better in terms of policy outcomes than low educated citizens, because the former participate in electoral politics more often (Lijphart, 1997;Gallego, 2007;Marien, Hooghe and Quintelier, 2010), hold political office more frequently (Bovens and Wille, 2017, p. 114) and engage with interest groups more strongly than the latter (Jordan and Maloney, 2006;Schlozman, Verba and Brady, 2012). Furthermore, we expect that such unequal responsiveness is more pronounced on cultural issues (such as immigration) than on economic issues (such as taxation). ...
... When it comes to educational groups, we can see clear manifestations of such biases. The most obvious manifestation is that higher educated citizens are more likely to be members of an interest group compared to middle-and low-educated citizens (Jordan and Maloney, 2006). Furthermore, even within the pool of members, it is the higher educated who are the most active in interest groups (Bovens and Wille, 2017, pp. ...
Education plays an important role in the political, social and economic divisions that have recently characterized Western Europe. Despite the many analyses of education and its political consequences, however, previous research has not investigated whether government policy caters more to the preferences of the higher educated than to the preferences of the lower educated. We address this question using an original dataset of public opinion and government policy in the Netherlands. This data reveals that policy representation is starkly unequal. The association between support for policy change and actual change is much stronger for highly educated citizens than for low and middle educated citizens, and only the highly educated appear to have any independent influence on policy. This inequality extends to the economic and cultural dimensions of political competition. Our findings have major implications for the educational divide in Western Europe, as they reflect both a consequence and cause of this divide. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved
... Collective action theory 41 provides a rich, principled framework for analysing social dilemmas in collective action. It has been tested in research on political protest, 42 voting, 43 union membership 26 and participation in social movements, 44 in which it has been extremely influential. It is well-known for its application to environmental politics, 45 in which it seeks to address Hardin's 46 'tragedy of the commons'. ...
... 82 83 Many group processes fit awkwardly into a cost-benefit framework such as in-group/out-group categorisation, 84 learning and socialisation in groups, 85 collective cognitive biases 86 87 and group emotion. 88 Non-participation may arise for reasons other than free riding 43 : individuals may have no stake in a collective outcome or even be opposed to it. We do not advocate displacing the above concerns with a narrow focus on participation dilemmas. ...
Community mobilisation interventions have been used to promote health in many low-income and middle-income settings. They frequently involve collective action to address shared determinants of ill-health, which often requires high levels of participation to be effective. However, the non-excludable nature of benefits produced often generates participation dilemmas: community members have an individual interest in abstaining from collective action and free riding on others’ contributions, but no benefit is produced if nobody participates. For example, marches, rallies or other awareness-raising activities to change entrenched social norms affect the social environment shared by community members whether they participate or not. This creates a temptation to let other community members invest time and effort. Collective action theory provides a rich, principled framework for analysing such participation dilemmas. Over the past 50 years, political scientists, economists, sociologists and psychologists have proposed a plethora of incentive mechanisms to solve participation dilemmas: selective incentives, intrinsic benefits, social incentives, outsize stakes, intermediate goals, interdependency and critical mass theory. We discuss how such incentive mechanisms might be used by global health researchers to produce new questions about how community mobilisation works and conclude with theoretical predictions to be explored in future quantitative or qualitative research.
... This recalls Toqueville's famous fears of the 'tyranny of the majority' dominating democratically elected governments, but his argument can be easily extended to include the tyranny of the wealthy, tyranny of the men, and tyranny of the white. Nor is this limited to electoral politics: Jordan and Maloney's (2006) profiling of the 'concerned, unmobilised' indicated that working-class citizens were less likely to join advocacy groups than middle-class citizens. ...
This article reviews existing theory and research on political non‐participation. Spanning the electoral, civic and social movement spheres, it critically compares the different conceptual tools that have been employed to explain why individuals might not participate in politics. This includes the study of rational choice, political socialisation, social networks and political emotions. In doing, this article identifies opportunities for a more holistic approach to studying non‐participation across multiple fields and contexts in the social sciences.
... This construct aligns with theories that social norms imposing rewards for participation and penalties for nonparticipation are needed to produce collective action (Olson, 1971;Ostrom, 1998). It also aligns with theories that such social norms may actively discourage or stigmatize it (Jordan & Maloney, 2006;Lodhia, 2014;Radke et al., 2016). We divided this construct into two subconstructs concerning respondent perceptions of the reaction of family and community members to their participation in collective action against VAW. ...
Past failures to mobilize communities in collective action against violence against women (VAW) have been ascribed to contextual challenges, but researchers have not systematically mapped community capacity for collective action against VAW. We conducted a mixed methods study in Mumbai, India using quantitative data from a household survey (n = 2,642) and qualitative data from 264 community meetings. We found attitudes supporting gender inequality and violence coexisted with significant enthusiasm and support for collective action against VAW. These findings open up avenues for policymakers to treat communities as less vulnerable and more capable of changing situations and problems that affect them.
... Dillman 2000), but nevertheless, the amount of nonresponse is high; (4) by focusing on members of four environmental organizations, I actually underestimate the mobilization potential of the climate change coalition and the climate issue in general. Jordan and Maloney (2006), in their study about participation in environmental organizations in the U.K., found that only a third of those people who are very much concerned about the environment are also members of an environmental organization. ...
The question of why some people participate in collective action, while most of them do not, has puzzled social movement scholars for decades, continuing to generate a burgeoning literature on what has been termed "differential recruitment." Studies investigating protest participation, however, rarely compare actual participants with nonparticipants. The most important reason is a methodological one: it is difficult to organize a pre- and post-design that allows for disentangling the whole mobilization process leading towards a protest demonstration. In this article, I present data about 2, 100 potential and actual participants in a national climate change demonstration in Belgium. Relying on this unique dataset, I present a comprehensive model including interpersonal networks and issue-related motivations to predict and explain participation and nonparticipation in a specific protest demonstration. Conceiving protest mobilization as a multistage process, I indicate how networks and motivations each have a distinct role in different stages of the mobilization process.
... In the decline-of-social-capital debate, a key issue relates to the growing popularity of more passive forms of involvement, such as passive membership and donating money, at the expense of active participation in voluntary associations (Jordan & Maloney, 2006;Putnam, 1995Putnam, , 2000Wollebaek & Selle, 2002a&b, 2007. As a result, in most Western countries, "passive membership is becoming the rule rather than the exception in organized civil society" (Wollebaek & Selle, 2002a, p.187). ...
In the current debate on social capital, a key issue relates to the growing popularity of more passive forms of involvement at the expense of active participation in voluntary associations. While some authors claim that this trend leads to a decline in social capital, others call for a reevaluation of the role of passive involvement. This article aims to contribute to a better understanding of the relationship between passive involvement and social capital. Using data from a representative survey of the Dutch-speaking population in Belgium, we assess the relationship between passive membership, financial support, and social capital. We find that financial support is a distinct form of participation that generates the strongest link with social capital. This indicates that voluntary associations, in addition to their socialization function, also perform an important representation function. This conclusion supports the institutional approach to social capital.
... 44 For a discussion of rational choice theories of action and the collective action problems, see Olson's (1971) The Logic of Collective Action. For a discussion of Olson's work and a recent study of the conditions of environmental activism, see Jordan and Maloney (2006). 45 Each case study was based on qualitative and quantitative interviews with activists exploring the motives of behaviour and assessing the stage of moral development of each activist by Lind and Wackenhut's (1985) moral judgment test (MJT). ...
This article develops Foucault’s later work on ethics and his concept of ethical askesis in the transformation of the self as a new approach to understanding organizational ethics. Scholars within the field of management and organization studies have already proposed the development of a Foucauldian approach to ethics, but the precise nature of such an ‘art of living’ has yet to be clarified. To address this gap in the literature this article builds on Foucault’s theoretical and practical interest in the work of historical and contemporary social movement organizations. The article investigates the role that social movement organizations play as crucibles for the creation of new forms of organizational subjectivity and novel ethical practices. In this way the article develops a synthesis between the Foucauldian scholarship and social movement organization theory. The contribution of the article shows how social movement organizations act as sites for the creation of novel organizational subjectivities and ethical practices, and reconceptualizes organizational ethics in Foucauldian terms as a form of ethical askesis to transform the self.
Over the past few decades, the legitimacy of membership-based social movement organizations (SMOs) has been called into question (Bosso, 2005; Jordan and Maloney, 1997, 2007; Putnam, 2000). As professionally-run institutions, SMOs have been accused of a preoccupation with maintaining income through membership marketing at the expense of fostering active participation among their members. In a nutshell, SMOs are seen to be self-serving ‘protest businesses’ which contribute little to social movement activism, and civic engagement in general. Our research into student members of a leading SMO takes issue with this assertion. Whilst organizationally SMOs can appear bureaucratic and impersonal in their marketing strategies, it cannot be assumed that this approach is only capable of attracting passive ‘chequebook activists’. Our findings suggest that younger members feel a sense of loyalty and trust towards the SMO as an effective ‘brand leader’ in its field, though this is by no means unrelenting. As reflexive consumers of activism, members have also grown more accustomed to the flexibilities of emerging post-bureaucratic ‘DIY’ activist groups. In sum, SMOs would benefit from a stronger and more consistent ‘feedback loop’ between the organization and its younger and more active members, as this will help provide scope for greater innovation whilst resisting tendencies towards self-serving ‘bureaucratized activism’.
Political parties were at the heart of the traditional narrative of British democracy. But parties as agents of political mobilisation are in decline. By contrast, membership of political pressure groups and social movement organisations has grown considerably. This shift in political activism is considered by some, but by no means all, to offer a radical alternative narrative of democratic participation. This article examines the organisational changes taking place behind this shift; and explores the extent to which more traditional models of political agency can be reformed in ways that supports and sustains the political activism at the core of a healthy democratic society.
This study analyzes survey data obtained from members in neo-Nazi and environmentalist discussion forums. It assesses the links between participation in radical and ideologically homogeneous online groups and two forms of political engagement (Movement Support and Movement Promotion). This study also tests whether perceived political dissimilarity of offline friends and family (core ties) and of more distant interpersonal associates (significant ties) encourages or thwarts political engagement and whether it moderates the influence exerted by online groups. As expected, political engagement among the analyzed respondents increases with online participation, also controlling for extremism, political discussion and news media use. Although dissimilar core ties neither encourage nor discourage political engagement, they moderate the mobilizing influence from neo-Nazi and radical environmentalist online groups. Dissimilar significant ties, in turn, do not directly affect political engagement and do not interact with online participation. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
Although the ‘gender gap’ in Western democratic publics has received an increasing amount of scholarly attention, one interesting anomaly has not been addressed. At the level of many specific issues, women appear to be more liberal than men. However, at the level of general ideological orientations, women are either more conservative, or there are no significant gender differences. We explore this disjuncture between levels of cognitive abstraction through the 1984 Eurobarometer data and conclude that the left-right continuum appears to have a different meaning for men and for women. Women seem much more likely to regard the left-right space as referring to ‘preservationist’ values of religion and cultural homogeneity, and men conceptualize the left-right space in economic and ‘New Polities’ terms.
The concept of citizenship is currently the focus of discussion by the media, politicians and academics, because of a generally perceived growth in public disaffection and apathy. Presenting the first comprehensive study of British citizenship, this book is comprised of surveys of political participation and voluntary activities, as well as the beliefs and values which support them. The authors provide a sophisticated discussion of the concept of citizenship, and the consequences of a lack of civic engagement in a modern democracy. © Cambridge University Press, 2009 and Charles Pattie, Patrick Seyd, Paul Whiteley 2004. All Rights Reserved.
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Social movement organizations face the challenge of converting action preparedness into action participation, and accordingly, they must deal with factors that lead to nonparticipation. We identify two routes to nonparticipation--"nonconversion" and "erosion." Nonconversion refers to a movement's failure to transform sympathizers into active participants. Erosion refers to the loss of sympathizers. We provide a theoretical framework for explaining nonconversion and erosion and apply it to a longitudinal study of a mobilization campaign of the Dutch Peace Movement: the People's Petition against cruise missiles. Data came from telephone interviews we conducted among random samples (N = 224) from the populations of four communities before and after the campaign (in May and November 1985). We use binomial logistic regression analyses to test several explanations of nonconversion and erosion. Factors that led to erosion were moderate action preparedness at the beginning of the campaign, declining preparedness during the campaign, and a social environment perceived by participants as becoming less and less supportive. Factors that led to nonconversion were moderate but stable action preparedness combined with the presence of barriers to action and an indifferent social environment. Results are discussed and related to social movement literature.
Focusing on the community mobilization processes following the Three Mile Island (TMI) accident, this paper presents the first empirical tests of central hypotheses derived from Olson (1965) involving both activists and free riders in a natural setting. Focusing initially on a randomly selected sample of free riders from the TMI area, we first investigate the extent of, and reasons for, this phenomenon. Free riding in an actual mobilization process is revealed to be more widespread than Olson's critics suggest, and also more complex than Olson alleged. We then compare the most politically active citizens in the TMI area with the free riders on solidarity, ideology, grievance, and other dimensions in an attempt to discern the most important correlates of social movement involvement. The paper concludes with a model which synthesizes the resource mobilization and alternative perspectives.
Rational actor theory and the facts of political participation have long been in an uneasy relationship. Many citizens vote and take part in other political activities when theory would predict that they would take a free ride. This paper draws on several analyses of citizen participation for some of which rational actor theory is quite useful and for others it is less so. It attempts to specify the conditions under which the theory is applicable. It concludes that rational actor theory is more potent when applied to issues of cost rather than benefits or when the goals of participation can be specified in a clear manner and one can measure their degree of attainment.
This article examines those public interest groups that have grown through heavy advertising expenditure and sophisticated marketing techniques, most particularly direct mail solicitations. It suggests that an Olson-style rational choice understanding of this 'mail order' membership must be supplemented by a recognition of the importance of group activity in manipulating the factors considered by individuals in joining decisions. Thus it moves the focus from the demand-side to the supply-side. Active marketing by groups can exploit sympathy for causes and encourage the predisposed potential member to join. Individuals do consider the range of benefits offered (though the list of factors is broader than Olson indicates) in their membership choices, but the group deliberately shapes the way in which these are regarded.
List of IllustrationsPrefaceIntroductionCh. 1Progress and Confusion3Ch. 2Barriers to Accumulation22Ch. 3The Rise and Decline of the Group Approach44Ch. 4Collective Action and the New Literature on Interest Groups64Ch. 5Bias and Diversity in the Interest-Group System83Ch. 6The Dynamics of Bias100Ch. 7Building a Literature on Lobbying, One Case Study at a Time120Ch. 8Surveys of Interest-Group Activities147Ch. 9Learning from Experience168AppendixArticles on Interest Groups Published in the American Political Science Review, 1950-1995189References197Index217
This review focuses on formal theories and models of collective action. There are many types of collective action, and they cannot all be captured with the same formal model. Four types of models are reviewed: single-actor models which treat the “group” behavior as given; models of the interdependent aggregation of individual choices into collective action; models of the collective decisions of individuals with different interests; and models of the dynamic interactions among collective actors and their opponents. All models require simplifying assumptions about some aspects of a situation so that others may be addressed. Models of the aggregation of individual choices have shown the greatest recent growth, have employed a wide variety of assumptions about individual behavior and coordination mechanisms, have identified complex interaction effects of group heterogeneity, and generally exhibit thresholds, discontinuities, and internal group differentiation. Models of dynamic interactions require further de...
The political science literature on interest groups, particularly since Olson (1965), normally focuses on individual motivations to join groups or the incentives offered by groups to entice prospective members to join and, more important, to stay on as members over time. But what happens to our understanding about “members”—a term freighted with overtones of democratic participation—when these individuals are more likely to be passive “supporters” or “donors”? Is there a conceptual and practical distinction between the two? This article ponders this question by examining the advocacy organizations that comprise the national environmental community.
The free rider problem The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- Hardin
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Interest group recruiting
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Epilogue: letter to Denton Morrison
- M Olson
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