GOVT 312: Parties and Campaigns

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GOVT 312 Parties and Campaigns

• Lecture 20 The Collective Action Problem of
  Congress

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The Collective Action Problem(Mancur Olson The
Logic of Collective Action)

• A public good exists everyone benefits from the
  production of the public good, regardless if they
  contribute to it.
• An individuals contribution to the public good
  is small relative to the overall cost of
  producing the public good.
• An individuals contribution is personally costly.

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The Free Rider and the Tragedy of the Commons

• A rational person will decide in this case to
  abstain from contributing or free ride.
• If everyone thinks this way, then no one
  contributes to the public good and a tragedy of
  the commons results.

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Solutions to the Collective Action Problem

• Political entrepreneurs
• Selective incentives provide positive or
  negative incentives that encourage people to
  produce the public good
• Smaller homogenous groups are better able to
  jointly coordinate and monitor non-compliance to
  overcome their collective action problem.
• Higher socio-economic status groups are able to
  bear the costs of contributing to the public good.

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The Prisoners Dilemma
-1,-1
0,-10
-10,0
-5,-5
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Delegate Enforcement to a Central Authority

• A group can decide to hire an authority to
  monitor and enforce compliance though selective
  incentives.
• The is the solution that Congress has struck
  upon.

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Selective Incentives Available to Congressional
Leaders

• Committee assignments, committee chairs
• Passing favored legislation agenda control
• Provide campaign assistance