Collective action

Collective action is coordinated activity by multiple people pursuing a shared outcome. It can produce benefits for participants or broader groups, even when individuals have incentives to hold back.

Collective action problem: A situation in which individuals’ incentives make it difficult to achieve a shared group benefit. It captures the tension between shared gains and individual incentives that shapes collective action.
Cooperation: Behavior in which people work together or refrain from harming one another toward compatible ends. Collective action is organized cooperation directed toward a shared outcome.
Social movement: A sustained collective effort to promote or resist social or political change. Movements turn dispersed grievances into coordinated pressure for change.
Rational choice theory: An approach that explains choices by modeling individuals as selecting actions to maximize expected utility. It highlights individual incentives that can obstruct group efforts unless institutions or incentives intervene.
Free-rider problem: A problem in which people benefit from a shared good without contributing to its provision. People may withhold effort when they can share the outcome without helping produce it.
Coordination game: A game in which players benefit from choosing compatible actions, often among multiple possible equilibria. Participants must align their choices on a common plan or focal point.
Strike action: A coordinated work stoppage by employees seeking to advance workplace demands. Workers use coordinated withdrawal of labor to strengthen their bargaining position.
Spontaneous order: A social order that emerges from individuals’ interactions without a central directing authority. It contrasts deliberate coordination with patterns that arise without an organized collective effort.
Social dilemma: A situation in which individually rational choices can produce a worse outcome for a group. Collective action is one way groups confront conflicts between private incentives and shared welfare.
Public good: A good that is non-excludable and non-rivalrous, so people cannot readily be kept from using it. Many collective efforts aim to provide benefits that are difficult to reserve for contributors.

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