POL SCI 40 Lecture 2: Lecture 1%2F11%2F2018
Document Summary
Collective action: collective action & coordination, free riding, tragedy of the commons, prisoner"s dilemma, institutions induce cooperation, need institutions with credible commitments. Sets up the institutions that regulate how we make choices, decisions, rules, laws. Conflicting ideas about how to allocate limited resources. Politics is the process of allocating scarce resources. Politics is the process through which we decide. All of these choices in a large society are collective choices. These choices result in collective action: thing we do together for the benefit of all of us. Public goods are a result of collective action. Actions that benefit all of us- provides a public good. We all benefit from congress being able to pass laws, electing a president, clean air, clean water, recycling, etc. Everyone helps achieve the goal and everyone benefits. A rooftop garden on a 6-unit building a new playground at a small school, siblings asking their parents for something. Collective action comes with lots of problems.
