Understanding Collective Action in Politics

What is the fundamental problem of governance according to the prompt?

• Balancing the budget

• Reconciling preferences

• Enforcing laws

• Reducing taxes

What is the primary purpose of politics as described in the prompt?

• To create wealth

• To reach agreement on a course of common action

• To enforce laws

• To reduce government size

What is a key challenge in unstructured negotiations?

• They are too expensive

• They rarely lead to acceptable results for all parties

• They require too much technology

• They are too formal

What is the Prisoner's Dilemma in the context of collective action?

• A situation where individuals are better off cooperating

• A situation where individuals are better off pursuing individual rewards

• A situation where individuals have no incentive to cooperate

• A situation where individuals are forced to cooperate

What is a common solution to coordination problems in large groups?

• Increasing taxes

• Delegating to a leader

• Reducing the number of participants

• Eliminating rules

What is the free-rider problem?

• When individuals contribute more than required

• When individuals withhold their contribution while enjoying the benefits

• When individuals are forced to contribute

• When individuals are unaware of the collective effort

What is the "Tragedy of the Commons"?

• A situation where public goods are overused and depleted

• A situation where public goods are underused

• A situation where public goods are equally distributed

• A situation where public goods are privatized

What are transaction costs in the context of collective action?

• The costs of enforcing laws

• The time, effort, and resources required to make collective decisions

• The costs of maintaining public goods

• The costs of individual decision-making

What is the relationship between transaction costs and conformity costs?

• They are directly related

• They are inversely related

• They are unrelated

• They are the same

What constitutional arrangement is used to solve collective action problems in the U.S.?

• Direct democracy

• Representative government

• Anarchy

• Dictatorship