POLI 12 Chapter Notes - Chapter 535-562: Common-Pool Resource, Ozone Layer, World Politics
Document Summary
Cooperation is thwarted by interactions in which it is difficult to coordinate large numbers of individuals or at the international level, moderately large numbers of states. Benefit from others" effort to preserve the environment while having only a marginal effect ourselves, people typically want to avoid changing personal behaviors or incurring costs to reduce pollution. Seek to free-ride on the efforts of others. Problem of collective action and out incentives to free-ride is because our choices produce externalities. Externalities: costs or benefits for stakeholders other than the actor undertaking an action. When an externality exists the decision makers does not bear all the costs or reap all the gains from his or her action. Creates a divergence between individual costs or benefits of action and broader costs or benefits to society as a whole. Independent decisions of individual actors lead to suboptimal results.
