Group Perspective: Interest Grouping and Bargaining

Understanding Policies (10700193-90)

Yue Hu

Tsinghua University

Overview

• Group theory
  • Core concepts
  • Evolution
• Collective action problem
  • Fundamental logic
  • Solutions of the collective action problem
  • Beyond collective action

Group Theory

Definition of public policy (⁉️)

The most general one:

Attitude and actions regarding a public objective.

Actor based → RT

Whatever governments choose to do or not to do (Dye 1972, 2)

/dai/

Emeritus professor of political science at Florida State University

Rational choice theory

Institution based → ST

The principles that govern action directed towards given ends (Titmuss 1975, 23).

Founding chair of LSE

system theory, rational choice, etc.

Outcome based → GT

A set of actions that affect the solution of a policy problem, i.e. a dissatisfaction regarding a certain need, demand or opportunity for public intervention (Dente 2014).

professor of Public Policy Analysis at Politecnico di Milano, 米兰理工大学, 意大利

Group theory is an outcome-based view

A perspective of group theory

Policy making as a continual struggle for balancing among the competing interests of various groups.

Crux of Group Theory

Who’re the group, and why grouping?

Remember how elites become elites?

James Madison, Arthur Bentley, David Truman, Mancur Olson, Elinor Ostrom

Elites are organized people with political interests

Starting from Elitism

What’s the opposite of elitism: Populism or Pluralism?

Key question: Who’s in charge?

Elitism & Populism

A set of elites.

Pluralism

Interest groups

There are places among the levels and branches that people and groups can engage.

Pluralism

By a faction, I understand a number of citizens, whether amounting to a majority or a minority of the whole, who are united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest, adverse to the rights of other citizens, or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community (Madison 1787).

Group = “faction” = Interest group

How does it work?

How do Interest Groups Make Politics (Bentley 1908)

Arthur Bentley

• Activity of a group
• Expression of an interest
• Exertion of pressure

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Arthur-F-Bentley#ref164555

Exertion = effort, 产生压力 三者是一个interest group 的三个侧面表现

Where to put government (Truman 1951)

Interest Groups’ internal characteristics

• Degree of organization
• Skills of the leadership
• Resources/money

Governmental Institutions

• Operating structure
• Groups’ effects on particular branches of the government

The government plays an active role in establishing the conditions for interest groups to act.

Government Process

• Government institutions: Politicized interest groups.
• Interest groups’ characteristics influence governmental decisions.
• Diversity makes policy-making flexible.

The interest groups’ strategic position in the society (groups’ status and prestige; their standing against the rules of the game; government membership in these groups; their usefulness as a source of information) and internal characteristics of both the interest groups (degree of organization; the skills of the leadership; and resources/money) and governmental institutions (operating structure; groups’ effects on particular branches of the government) affect the influence on governmental decisions.
The political structure of the U.S. government (federalism, liberty, rights) allows potential interest groups to rise and therefore play a role in representing interests.
Diversity and will accommodate policy-making and will make it more flexible.

https://adambrown.info/p/notes/truman_the_governmental_process

Interest groups: Control vs. Prevent?

Control

“Only working in a republic” — Madison

Why:

• A large one (diverse interest groups)
• Under federalism (making local matter)

“Anti-pure-democracy”

Madison: Only the representatives can construct common interests.

The principle of popular sovereignty should prevent minority factions from gaining power.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federalist_No._10#Madison’s_arguments

According to Madison, remove the causes of faction

• Destroying liberty
• Creating a society homogeneous in opinions and interests

Prevent ✓

How to Prevent

严肃党内政治生活贵在经常、重在认真、要在细节。党中央权威，全党都必须自觉维护，并具体体现到自己的全部工作中去，决不能表面上喊着同党中央保持一致、实际上没当回事，更不能违背中央大政方针各自为政、自行其是。党内组织和组织、组织和个人、同志和同志、集体领导和个人分工负责等重要关系都要按照民主集中制原则来设定和处理，不能缺位错位、本末倒置。党内政治生活和组织生活都要讲政治、讲原则、讲规矩，不能搞假大空，不能随意化、平淡化，更不能娱乐化、庸俗化。党内上下关系、人际关系、工作氛围都要突出团结和谐、纯洁健康、弘扬正气，不允许搞团团伙伙、帮帮派派，不允许搞利益集团、进行利益交换 (习近平 2014)。

https://news.12371.cn/2017/01/22/ARTI1485056442898787.shtml

不仅限于政策制定，还包括执行 等policy-making cycle

Modeling Group Action

Mancur Olson: Understand “free rider” problem with economic means

Elinor Ostrom: Institutional arrangement for collective actions

Taking-Home Points

• Group theory
  • Grouping who and why group
  • Evolution: Madison → Bentley → Truman
    • Pluralism
    • Interest group
    • Government’s role
    • Anti-interest group
• Modeling group actions
  • Olson: the collective action problem
  • Ostrom: bring the institution in

Reference

Bentley, Arthur Fisher. 1908. The Process of Government: A Study of Social Pressures. Principia Press.

Dente, Bruno. 2014. “Understanding Policy Decisions.” In Understanding Policy Decisions, 1–27. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02520-9_1.

Dye, Thomas R. 1972. Understanding Public Policy. Englewood Cliffs, N.J: Prentice-Hall.

Madison, James. 1787. “The Union as a Safeguard Against Domestic Faction and Insurrection from the New York Packet.” In The Federalist Papers. 10. New York.

Oliver, Pamela E., and Gerald Marwell. 1988. “The Paradox of Group Size in Collective Action: A Theory of the Critical Mass. II.” American Sociological Review 53 (1, 1): 1–8. https://doi.org/10.2307/2095728.

Olson, Mancur. 1971. The Logic of Collective Action: Public Goods and the Theory of Groups. Harvard University Press.

Ostrom, Elinor. 1990. Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action. Cambridge University Press.

Titmuss, Richard Morris. 1975. Social Policy : An Introduction. New York : Pantheon Books.

Truman, David B. 1951. The Governmental Process: Political Interests and Public Opinion. New York: Knopf.

习近平. 2014. “在党的群众路线教育实践活动总结大会上的讲话.” 新华社.

Bonus: Collective Action

Goods

A more general view beyond politics (just like neo-institutionalism over institutionalism)

Olson’s Collective Action

Private: Software?
Club: Water network?
Common: Freshwater?
Public: Dam?

Examples in the real world

private good

club good

common good (rivalry is high)

public good

Collective Action Problem: Supply of Public Goods

Every rational actors has an intention not to contribute (Olson 1971). why?

/kr’ʌks/

See also Garrett Hardin’ s tragedy of the commons

a situation in a shared-resource system where individual users, acting independently according to their own self-interest, behave contrary to the common good of all users by depleting or spoiling the shared resource through their collective action.

Real-life Example: Brexit

2016, British people fells the marjority of the Europe is free rider

Olson’s Solutions: Small size

• Lower organization/transaction cost
• Higher impact on individuals’ cost
• Larger per-capita benefit

Olson’s Solutions: In-Out Group Difference

• Benefits are asymmetric
• The most benefited party provides the public goods

Olson’s Solutions: Selective Incentives

private goods for public goods providers

1. 自献血之日起5年内免费使用献血量5倍的血液；5年之后免费使用献血量等量的血液。参加北京市无偿献血公民的配偶和直系亲属，不符合献血条件的，自公民献血之日起5年内免费使用献血量等量的血液。
2. Donation for tax waiver

Olson’s Solutions: Coercion

An Institutionalist Solution

Institutional arrangement for collective actions (Ostrom 1990)

• People are not autonomous
• Rules can reduce collective action issues

Collective action not a problem

Critical Mass Theory (Oliver and Marwell 1988)

Production functions determine the critical mass

• Accelerating (bandwagon effects)
• Decelerating (free-rider)

S-shape

1. Critical mass theory

Marwell, Gerald, and Pamela Oliver. 1993. The Critical Mass in Collective Action. Cambridge University Press.

1. Each additional contribution has an increasing effect on the public good: BT downloading

2. Each additional contribution has a declining effect on the public good: EU

3. First a problem of overcoming start-up costs, then heightened mobilization, then declining marginal payoffs:

垃圾分类: Partially caused by the psychological utility curve:

Network & Cooperation

Social capital: Credibility solves the collective action

Cooperation:

• Activists: Seeking for central positions and more connections
• Resource users: Embedding in smaller, denser networks.

Scholz, John T., Ramiro Berardo, and Brad Kile. 2008. “Do Networks Solve Collective Action Problems? Credibility, Search, and Collaboration.” The Journal of Politics 70(2): 393–406.