Title: The Logic of Collective Action: Public Goods and the Theory of Groups by Mancur Olson
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The Logic of Collective Action: Public Goods and the Theory of Groups
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Content: This book was written in 1971, and the neoclassical understanding of collective action has, as far as I can tell, not been substantially advanced since then—in over 40 years, the essential conclusions haven't changed. This would not be a problem, of course, if those conclusions were correct; but they aren't. Indeed they are wrong at a fundamental level; they are almost literally reversed from the truth. Here is the basic argument: 1. The interests of a group are not the same as the interests of its individual members. [ This is true; moreover, I don't think it was recognized by most people before Olson.