book review on Mancur Olson's
Mancur Olson, wrote The Logic of Collective Action Public Goods and The Theory of Groups, throughout the book Olson discusses such topics rationality, group size and group behaviour, public goods, free rider, collective action problem, and selective incentives. Olson's world-renowned book is full of useful knowledge and opinion concerning world politics. After reading this valuable text I feel both enlightened and baffled concurrently. Olson's beliefs in the political system seem to be without the human factor. His theories appear to leave out the complexity of the human psyche. Olson fails to analyze the fact that people may join a political group for such things as social stature, socialization, or just for something to do. In conjuncture with Olson's theories, people join or start groups for specific reasons. Olson states that one purpose for groups and organizations is simply the "furtherance of the interests of their members" (Olson 5). Groups are usually formed to further an issue or goal, so thus if a group works toward a common interest and is successful in making advancements towards that interest, in theory the members should be pleased. This brings us to the term public or collective
Mancur Olson, wrote this book in 1965 and its knowledge and opinion still proves useful almost 40 years later. Olson's theories are based on political systems throughout the world but have a focus on U.S. politics. Although through his theories, Olson, neglects to mention the influence of human motivation, and the complexity of the human psyche. Olson's theories can only be correct to a point because people in general are not as easy to predict. For the most part though Olson has pointed out themes and rationales from U.S. politics, and put them into structured theories. Mancur Olson's book The Logic of Collective Action Public Goods and The Theory of Groups will be read and studied for years to come. "The traditional theory of group behaviour that implicitly assumes that private groups and associations operate according to principles entirely different from those that governs the relationships among firms in the marketplace or between taxpayers and the state" (Olson 16). Many different writers including Olson helped to invent this traditional theory that describes group behaviour and relates it to the marketplace. According to Olson the effectiveness of the size of a group directly correlates with the level of society. For instance if the society is modern, than the larger the group, the more effective it will be in obtaining collective goods. In a primitive society a small group would be more effective in obtaining
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Approximate Word count = 968
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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