The Status Solution to the Collective Action Problem

least Hobbes ([1651] 1972) is the question of what makes collective action possible— be it the mobilization of a social movement, the activities of a voluntary association, or even just the maintenance of social order. Chronically, situations arise in which individuals can gain more by not contributing to the public good but instead “free-riding” on the contributions of others. If individuals always act in their own selfinterest, it would seem impossible to produce public goods. Yet people do overcome the collective action problem; society is possible (Hardin 1982; Ostrom 1990). Generations of theorists have sought to explain how collective action is achieved in practice. Where Enlightenment philosophers invoked an implicit social contract that citizens agree to, social scientists have proposed cultural, interactional, and institutional mechanisms that lead individuals to transcend narrow self-interest. Marx, for example, focused on class interests, Durkheim emphasized solidarity, Parsonian theory stressed the inculcation of common ends, and so on. Here I propose and test another solution to the collective action problem based on the premise that groups pay respect to individuals for their contributions to the group’s efforts. By contributing, individuals display their concern for the group. The group, in turn, conveys respect for the individual. Receiving that respect further motivates the individual to contribute. Below, I demonstrate how these processes encourage group-oriented behaviors, with individuals’concerns for respect and social standing binding them together in collective actions. I also investigate how these dynamics affect macro-level phenomena of broad relevance to the collective Groups Reward Individual Sacrifice: The Status Solution to the Collective Action Problem