Difficulties of Collective Action

If all individuals in a group benefit from achieving the group's goals, they cannot deduce that they will act to achieve that goal, even if they are rational and self-interested. In fact, unless there is a small group in a group, or unless there are coercive or other special measures to enable individuals to act in their common interest, those who are rational and seek self-interest will not act to achieve their common or the group's interests. In other words, even if all individuals in a large group are rational and self-interested, and as a group, they all benefit from taking actions to achieve common interests or goals, they will still voluntarily take The idea of acting in the interest of common or group interests is far from a logical corollary of the assumption that individuals in a group will rationally enhance their personal interests.

As a social phenomenon, collective action runs through the entire human society. As long as there is cooperation in the supply of public goods that cannot be achieved by an individual, there is a phenomenon of collective action. As a theory, the study of collective action runs through the entire field of social science. As long as there is a problem to overcome the "free riding" dilemma in cooperation, it is necessary to use the theoretical framework of collective action. Areas such as institutional change, corporate governance, social movements and others are part of a collective effort to reach the goals of an organization, but also conducive to the body's help. Therefore, the research on collective action has great theoretical and practical significance.

The main problem is to reduce externalities. The consumption of public goods is non-exclusive and indivisible. I consume, I consume, I pay to consume. You can get the same consumption without paying for it, which shows the existence of positive externalities. "Public land" overuses, I want to get the most benefit, and you have to meet the best interests, so the depletion of resources - negative externalities appeared. In order to reduce the externalities and make the benefits and costs symmetrical, the introduction of market transactions on the provision of public goods or public services cannot be avoided. For example, charging public water users. Take the phenomenon of traffic congestion as an example. If people pay in some way to use the roads, the situation will improve.