Week 2: Madness, Grievance, and Rationality Flashcards
Crowd Theory Arguments
“the psychological law of the mental unity of crowds”
1. anonymity breeds unaccountability for one’s actions
2. a sense of invincibility (DeNardo - power of numbers)
3. Hypnotic effect: makes people subject to suggestibility and to influences of leaders
4. Contagion in crowds and the unconscious mind (herd mentality)
Who is the author of Crowd Theory?
Le Bon (1896)
Problems with Crowd Theory
- most people do not engage in extraordinary behavior in the context of a crowd (“milling” - just kind of ‘mill’ around)
- people are rarely anonymous in the context of a crowd
- there is no evidence of cognitive impairment of individuals in crowds
- suggestibility can also be found outside of crowds
Crowd theory takes the unusual behavior that occasionally occurs within crowds and generalizes it.
Who authored the “collective behavior approach” ?
Turner and Killian (1957)
Collective Behavior Approach
- collective behavior is a response to larger structural strains in the social system
- functionalist approach to social movements: a symptom of a social system in disequilibrium, whose equilibrating functions are not operating effectively
- social movements are not only manifestations of the breakdown of norms in society; they are also mechanisms for the creation of new norms
What are the problems with the collective behavior approach?
- is an excessively functionalist understanding of how social movements work
- stigmatizes movement activity as deviant and pathological
- overlooks the conflictual, interactive, and moral basis of movement activity
- lumps disparate phenomena together
Who authored Relative Deprivation?
Gurr (1970)
What is relative deprivation?
The gap between the ‘ought’ and the ‘is’ of collective value satisfaction [i.e. the gap between expected achievement and actual achievement]
What is the frustration-aggression theory?
Frustration that is unaddressed leads to anger, and anger that builds up leads to aggression.
Decremental deprivation
Expectations remain constant, capabilities decline
Aspirational deprivation
Rising expectations, constant capabilities
Progressive deprivation
growing gap occurs even though expectations and capabilities are both increasing
Why is relative deprivation no longer widely used to study social movements?
- difficulty of measuring relative deprivation, since it is a perception, not a material condition
- difficult to know what the referent group is
- empirical work contradicted the theory (research on riots in the 1960s showed that mistrust in the police was more important than relative deprivation as a motivating grievance)
- relative deprivation is neither necessary nor sufficient for rebellion – minimizes the role of the state
- no direct relationship between the presence of grievances and protest [most people do not act in the face of injustice]
Theories of Injustice
Distributive justice
Procedural justice
retributive justice
What is distributive justice
Equality vs. equity
What is procedural justice
- do people have a voice and feel part of decision-making processes?
- process-control vs. decision-control
What is retributive injustice?
- breaking of norms and rules
- bringing back an equilibrium
Why do individuals have variable perceptions of injustice?
- the unfairly advantaged often rationalize their situation (cognitive dissonance reduction)
- the unfairly disadvantaged often blame themselves or adjust their beliefs due to threats or the impossibility of change
What are the 5 ways of thinking about the role of grievances in collective action?
- Grievance is never enough: it does not explain why people act or do not act
- but explaining mobilization without reference to grievance is unsatisfactory, as movements almost always articulate grievances, and most people who act do so out of a sense of grievance
- there are many ways by which a sense of grievance can develop
- reactions to grievance are complex; a unified theory of grievance is impossible
- There usually is not a single motivation that underpins collective action, and grievances are not necessary for engaging in collective action
What are reasons other than grievances for people to participate in collective action?
- empathy with others
- commitment to an ideology
- a sense of obligation to family or friends
- a desire to gain the respect of others
- the desire to profit personally from participation
- fear of the consequences of not participating
Who is the author of the Collective Action Problem?
Olson (1965)
The Collective Action Problem
Why would people ever participate in groups that seek to attain public goods when they can just as well enjoy the public good without ever participating in its attainment?
What is the effect of group size on the provision of public goods?
in large groups, no single individuals contribution makes a perceptible difference to the attainment of the public good for the group as a whole.
- the costs of the organization necessary for attaining the public good increase
- AS A RESULT: high costs and low benefits to the individual means that, in most circumstances, a rational individual will not participate in the production of the public good in large groups, leading to the under-provision of the public good.
- in this circumstance, people are prevented from achieving their common interests because of their individual interests
What is Olson’s solution to the collective action problem?
SELECTIVE INCEnTIVES
