Collective Actions and Rational Choice Explanations

In order for rational choice theory (RCT) to explain the production of collective action, it must be able to distinguish between two behaviorally identical possibilities: one, that all of the agents in a group are each performing behaviors in pursuit of a set of individual actions; and two, that all of those agents are performing those behaviors in pursuit of a collective action. I argue that traditional RCT does not have the resources necessary to distinguish between these two possibilities. I go on to argue that there are several ways in which we might modify the resources of RCT so as to be able to account for this distinction. The most effective solution, I argue, is to incorporate constraints into our RCT, so that deliberation in pursuit of a collective action is distinct from deliberation in pursuit of individual action in virtue of the presence of these characteristic collective constraints.