The Collective Dimensions of Political Morality

Collective moral action is analysed using two models: a deontological, non-strategic model emphasizing right moral judgment and individual action and a rational, strategic model emphasizing the need to overcome free-rider problems. While these models fail to explain satisfactorily collective moral action each provides valuable insights which are used to examine three case studies: successful collective action to rescue Jews in Europe and failed action to confront Japanese-American persecution during World War Two. Several striking conclusions emerge. First, enlightened moral judgment is not a necessary condition for collective moral action. Instead a complex structure of action emerges in which organizational leaders acting within parochial groups manipulate incentives and substitute public goods. Second, enlightened political actors are very often the most politically impotent. This emerging paradox severely attenuates the moral basis of political action which underlies normative theory

Action (physics · Collective action · Economics · Law and economics · Morality · Normative · Political science · Politics · Public good · Sociology · Electoral Systems and Political Participation · Law · Political Conflict and Governance · Political Philosophy and Ethics

• Annual Selected Bibliography

  Glenn Omatsu•Amerasia Journal•1994

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• The usual suspects

  Keith Dowding, Andrew Hindmoor•New Political Economy•1997

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• Moral Judgment, Organizational Incentives and Collective Action

  Open Access•M L Gro•Political Research Quarterly•1995

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• The Importance of Being Asked

  Open Access•Federico Varese, M Yaish•Rationality and Society•2000

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• Altruism

  Jane Allyn Piliavin, Hong-Wen Charng•Annual Review of Sociology•1990

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• Resource Mobilization and Social Movements

  John D Mccarthy, Mayer N Zald•American Journal of Sociology•1977

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