PS 201 Study Guide Chapter 1

Question 1

Collective Action Problems

Answer 1

Collective decisions are more difficult for larger than smaller groups; when the number of participants desiring to coordinate is very large, coordination may be unachievable, as in the prisoner’s dilemma and free riders problem.

Question 2

Collective Goods

Answer 2

Goods that are collectively produced and freely available for anyone’s consumption.

Question 3

Conformity Costs

Answer 3

The difference between what a person ideally would prefer and what the group with which the person makes collective decisions actually does. Individuals pay whenever collective decisions produce policy outcomes that do not best serve their interests.

Question 4

Free-Rider Problem

Answer 4

A situation in which individuals can receive the benefits from a collective activity whether or not they helped to pay for it, leaving them with no incentive to contribute.

Question 5

Institutions

Answer 5

In a democracy, an organization that manages potential conflicts between political rivals, helps them to find mutually acceptable solutions, and makes and enforces the society’s collective agreements. Institutions are not unchangeable, but they tend to be stable and resist change for a couple of reasons. Congress, the presidency, and the Supreme Court are all prominent examples.

Question 6

Preferences

Answer 6

Individuals’ choices, reflecting economic situation, religious values, ethnic identity, or other valued interests.

Question 7

Prisoner’s Dilemma

Answer 7

A situation in which two (or more) actors cannot agree to cooperate for fear that the other will find its interest best served by reneging on an agreement.

Question 8

Private Goods

Answer 8

Benefits and services over which the owner has full control of their use. Example: a cup of coffee, a car

Question 9

Public Goods

Answer 9

Goods that are collectively produced and freely available for anyone’s consumption. Example: National Defense

Question 10

Tragedy of the Commons

Answer 10

A situation in which group members overexploit a common resource, causing its destruction

Question 11

Markets

Answer 11

The distribution of goods and resources in a society, voluntary participation, absence of coordination, advantages are efficient outcomes and disadvantages are inequitable outcomes

Question 12

Social Organizations

Answer 12

Also used to distribute goods and services, examples are churches or religious communities, voluntary participation, coordinated activity,, exit is always an option

Question 13

Archetypal Collective Action Problem

Answer 13

Is the production and distribution of non-private goods

Question 14

Common Goods

Answer 14

They are rival, non-excludable, for example: fisheries and open grazing land

Question 15

Club Goods

Answer 15

they are non-rival, excludable, for example: wifi, streaming services

Question 16

Authority

Answer 16

Is the acknowledged right to make a particular decision.

Question 17

Power

Answer 17

Refers to an officeholder’s actual influence with other officeholders and, as a consequence, over the government’s actions

Question 18

Politics

Answer 18

The process through which individuals and groups reach agreement on a course of common, or collective action–even as they disagree on the intended goals of that action.

Question 19

Constitutions as a set of rules

Answer 19

The constitution of a nation establishes its governing institutions and the set of rules and procedures these institutions must (and must not) follow to reach and enforce collective agreements.