Collective Action and the Civil Rights MovementCollective Action and the Civil Rights Movement is a theoretical study of the dynamics of public-spirited collective action as well as a substantial study of the American civil rights movement and the local and national politics that surrounded it. In this major historical application of rational choice theory to a social movement, Dennis Chong reexamines the problem of organizing collective action by focusing on the social, psychological, and moral incentives of political activism that are often neglected by rational choice theorists. Using game theoretic concepts as well as dynamic models, he explores how rational individuals decide to participate in social movements and how these individual decisions translate into collective outcomes. In addition to applying formal modeling to the puzzling and important social phenomenon of collective action, he offers persuasive insights into the political and psychological dynamics that provoke and sustain public activism. This remarkably accessible study demonstrates how the civil rights movement succeeded against difficult odds by mobilizing community resources, resisting powerful opposition, and winning concessions from the government. |
Contents
1 PublicSpirited Collective Action | 1 |
2 AllOrNothing Public Goods | 13 |
3 Selective Social Incentives and Reputational Concerns | 31 |
4 Narrowly Rational Expressive Benefits | 73 |
5 Creating the Motivation to Participate in Collective Action | 90 |
6 Coordination Problems in Assurance Games | 103 |
7 A Formal Model of Collective Action | 141 |
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Common terms and phrases
abolitionism achieve Albany arrested assurance game authorities bandwagon behavior Birmingham Birmingham campaign black community boycott campaign cause choice civil rights activists civil rights movement coalition collective action problem commitment concessions Consequently contagion rate contribute convention cooperation coordination CORE dampen defection defector demand demonstrations desegregation E. D. Nixon effect efforts equal equation equilibrium example federal figure free ride freedom riders goals Greensboro sit-in Hirschman ibid increase individual initial jail King leaders leadership level of mobilization level of supply lynch marchers ment Montgomery bus boycott moral motivated NAACP nonviolence obligation one's opposition organizations outcome participate in collective payoff period person play players police political activism political activists preferences prison prisoner's dilemma protest public-spirited collective action punish racial rational reason recruitment reputation SCLC selective incentives Selma sit-in SNCC social movement social pressure strategy success supply and demand sustain tactics tion tive