Week 2: Madness, Grievance, and Rationality

Question 1

Crowd Theory Arguments

Answer 1

“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)

Question 2

Who is the author of Crowd Theory?

Answer 2

Le Bon (1896)

Question 3

Problems with Crowd Theory

Answer 3

1. most people do not engage in extraordinary behavior in the context of a crowd (“milling” - just kind of ‘mill’ around)
2. people are rarely anonymous in the context of a crowd
3. there is no evidence of cognitive impairment of individuals in crowds
4. suggestibility can also be found outside of crowds
   Crowd theory takes the unusual behavior that occasionally occurs within crowds and generalizes it.

Question 4

Who authored the “collective behavior approach” ?

Answer 4

Turner and Killian (1957)

Question 5

Collective Behavior Approach

Answer 5

• 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

Question 6

What are the problems with the collective behavior approach?

Answer 6

• 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

Question 7

Who authored Relative Deprivation?

Answer 7

Gurr (1970)

Question 8

What is relative deprivation?

Answer 8

The gap between the ‘ought’ and the ‘is’ of collective value satisfaction [i.e. the gap between expected achievement and actual achievement]

Question 9

What is the frustration-aggression theory?

Answer 9

Frustration that is unaddressed leads to anger, and anger that builds up leads to aggression.

Question 10

Decremental deprivation

Answer 10

Expectations remain constant, capabilities decline

Question 11

Aspirational deprivation

Answer 11

Rising expectations, constant capabilities

Question 12

Progressive deprivation

Answer 12

growing gap occurs even though expectations and capabilities are both increasing

Question 13

Why is relative deprivation no longer widely used to study social movements?

Answer 13

1. difficulty of measuring relative deprivation, since it is a perception, not a material condition
2. difficult to know what the referent group is
3. 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)
4. relative deprivation is neither necessary nor sufficient for rebellion – minimizes the role of the state
5. no direct relationship between the presence of grievances and protest [most people do not act in the face of injustice]

Question 14

Theories of Injustice

Answer 14

Distributive justice
Procedural justice
retributive justice

Question 15

What is distributive justice

Answer 15

Equality vs. equity

Question 16

What is procedural justice

Answer 16

• do people have a voice and feel part of decision-making processes?
• process-control vs. decision-control

Question 17

What is retributive injustice?

Answer 17

• breaking of norms and rules
• bringing back an equilibrium

Question 18

Why do individuals have variable perceptions of injustice?

Answer 18

• 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

Question 19

What are the 5 ways of thinking about the role of grievances in collective action?

Answer 19

1. Grievance is never enough: it does not explain why people act or do not act
2. 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
3. there are many ways by which a sense of grievance can develop
4. reactions to grievance are complex; a unified theory of grievance is impossible
5. There usually is not a single motivation that underpins collective action, and grievances are not necessary for engaging in collective action

Question 20

What are reasons other than grievances for people to participate in collective action?

Answer 20

• 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

Question 21

Who is the author of the Collective Action Problem?

Answer 21

Olson (1965)

Question 22

The Collective Action Problem

Answer 22

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?

Question 23

What is the effect of group size on the provision of public goods?

Answer 23

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

Question 24

What is Olson’s solution to the collective action problem?

Answer 24

SELECTIVE INCEnTIVES

Question 25

What are selective incentives?

Answer 25

is an incentive that can be targeted to individuals so that they can be excluded from receiving it if they do or do not cooperate
- it could be negative or positive incentive, but must be clearly targeted at those who do or do not participate

Question 26

Where do selective incentives come from?

Answer 26

• resources are needed to lower costs and provide selective incentives
• organization and leadership
• the larger the group, the more resources, and the more organization and coordination will be needed for the group to pursue its collective interest

Question 27

Who authored the resource mobilization approach?

Answer 27

McCarthy

Question 28

What are the key assumptions of the resource mobilization approach?

Answer 28

• explaining collective action requires attention to the resources
• grievances are structurally given and relatively constant

Question 29

What are the arguments with resource mobilization?

Answer 29

1. the aggregation and deployment of resources is critical to explaining movement success
2. emphasize the need for some minimal organization (even hierarchical organization) for mobilization to be successful
3. movement success often depends on the involvement of individuals and organizations from outside the beneficiary group
4. the importance of costs and rewards in explaining individual participation

Question 30

What is a resource?

Answer 30

money, facilities, labor, equipment, media attention, skills, legitimacy

Question 31

Problems with resource mobilization approach?

Answer 31

1. possible circularity if a resource is anything that aids mobilization
2. assumption that grievances are relatively constant is not realistic
3. the limits of resources as a factor in mobilization (there are cases of mobilization without resources)
4. questions about the tendency to advocate hierarchical, bureaucratic, professionalized social movement organizations over looser, less, hierarchical groups
5. is organization still necessary in internet age?

Question 32

What are the limits of Olson’s research?

Answer 32

1. overemphasizes material motivation and underemphasizes moral incentives for participation
2. collective action problem is not that difficult to overcome (is routinely overcome)
3. many successful movements do not possess significant selective incentives
4. who are the ‘first-movers’
5. ignores the costs of inaction as an incentive to mobilization
6. studies show that group size has a positive effect on the probability that a public good will be provided
   - the costs of collective action in the Olsonian model are real. But the free-rider problem that renders participation irrational without incentive may be less consequential