Title: Collective action problem - Wikipedia
Headings: Collective action problem
Collective action problem
Contents
Prominent theorists
Early thought
Modern thought
Theories
Game theory
Prisoner's dilemma
Evolutionary theories
Psychological theories
Public goods
Replenishing resource management
Tragedy of the commons
Social traps
Perceptual dilemma
In conflict
In politics
Voting
Environmental policy
Factors promoting cooperation in social dilemmas
Motivational solutions
Strategic solutions
Structural solutions
Conclusions
See also
References
Further reading
External links

Content: Hobbes believed that people act purely out of self-interest, writing in Leviathan in 1651 that "if any two men desire the same thing, which nevertheless they cannot both enjoy, they become enemies." Hobbes believed that the state of nature consists of a perpetual war between people with conflicting interests, causing people to quarrel and seek personal power even in situations where cooperation would be mutually beneficial for both parties. Through his interpretation of humans in the state of nature as selfish and quick to engage in conflict, Hobbes's philosophy laid the foundation for what is now referred to as the collective action problem. David Hume provided another early and better-known interpretation of what is now called the collective action problem in his 1738 book A Treatise of Human Nature. Hume characterizes a collective action problem through his depiction of neighbors agreeing to drain a meadow: Two neighbours may agree to drain a meadow, which they possess in common; because it is easy for them to know each others mind; and each must perceive, that the immediate consequence of his failing in his part, is, the abandoning the whole project. But it is very difficult, and indeed impossible, that a thousand persons should agree in any such action; it being difficult for them to concert so complicated a design, and still more difficult for them to execute it;