Collective Action

Coordination problems where individual rationality leads to collectively suboptimal outcomes — the gap between what’s best for each and what’s best for all.

Classic examples include the prisoner’s dilemma, tragedy of the commons, and free-rider problems. Solutions involve changing incentives, building trust, establishing institutions, or enabling communication and commitment.

Systems Connection

Collective action problems reveal how component-level optimization doesn’t guarantee system-level welfare. Each agent responds rationally to local feedback, yet the emergent outcome is suboptimal. Solving collective action requires restructuring feedback loops — aligning individual and collective interests through institutional design.

See Also

• Political Economy — parent domain
• Mechanism Design — solving collective action through incentives
• Institution — structures enabling collective action