Collective Action
by One may thing of collective bargaining as in unions and this is related to the topic of collective action as a number of people work together for a common goal.
Collective action can be taken by one person or by a group and it is said that this action can lead to deviance and conflict. When a group decides to taken into consideration some acts of aggression that violates one person’s privacy or sense of security, this is one example of conflict that can arise. Other members may not accept the integration of the person into the group and conflict can deepen and it is the institution, which can modify the person’s behaviour. Economically speaking it is the provision of goods, which are not depleted like a water supply by a group of people city workers in this case, that determines the collective action of the group.
John Stuart Mill coined the term economic man to refer to man ho was motivated by certain changes in the economy in different ways. This lead to the idea of some men being interested in his potential benefits, homo economus, rather than in giving back to society or wanting to improve their ambience.
In Olson’s book on collective action, he referred to some individuals who would only join a group if there was some reward to be made. This would also encourage donating to a group’s cause and this work later was elaborated into something more sinister about the evolution of the economic nation; the nation would eventually crumble under the weight of extensive union boycotts and impeding of technological progress with the goal of only keeping those jobs alive.
Since the cost of impeding progress, as is the trend these days is distributed among all taxpayers there is little resistance as a group. Given that the amount of lockouts and resistance to technological change could mount because it can mean a loss of jobs for people who learned their work on the old technology, theoretically the nation can eventually go into economic decline. Perhaps this might be an eye-opener to present day American economists trying to hedge the recession by encouraging small business development across the country. But if the government has been so generous in giving billions for banks to recover one wonders how much is left to help the small business owner. Collective action could have been made then to promote small business and not the bailing out of a few auto manufacturers who do not comprise the working majority.
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