Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-t5tsf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-17T15:22:25.840Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Individual Participation in Collective Racial Violence: A Rational Choice Synthesis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2014

T. David Mason
T. David Mason*
Affiliation:
Mississippi State University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Existing rational choice treatments of collective violence have consistently discounted the role of the public goods component of the individual's decision calculus about whether or not to participate in such acts. By assuming free rider effects with respect to the public goods, these theories are unable to account for the initial inception of violence or for the later nonlooting behaviors that constitute aspects of a riot and, indeed, are preconditions for the inception of looting, the only riot behavior for which these theories can offer any explanation. Five dimensions of discrimination are defined in rational choice terms and their elimination (or reduction) is defined as the creation of a public good. I use existing theories of individual contributions to the provision of public goods to demonstrate that free rider effects need not be assumed and that the inception of a riot and later nonlooting riot behaviors can best be explained as individual contributions to the provision of the public goods represented by the elimination of the several forms of discrimination.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 78 , Issue 4 , December 1984 , pp. 1040 - 1056
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 0000

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Becker, G. S.Crime and punishment: An economic approach. Journal of Political Economy, 1968, 76, 169–172.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Becker, G. S.The economics of discrimination. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1957.Google Scholar
Becker, G. S.Human capital. New York: National Bureau of Economic Research, Columbia University, 1975.Google Scholar
Campbell, A., & Schuman, H.Racial attitudes in fifteen American cities. Supplemental Studies for the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1968.Google Scholar
Caplan, N.The new ghetto man: A review of recent empirical findings. Journal of Social Issues, 1970, 26, 59–73.Google Scholar
Chalmers, J. A., & Shelton, R. B.An economic analysis of riot participation. Economic Inquiry, 1975, 13, 322–336.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chamberlin, J.Provision of collective goods as a function of group size. American Political Science Review, 1974, 68, 707–715.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coleman, J. S., et al.Equality of educational opportunity. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1966.Google Scholar
Davies, J. C.The J-curve of rising expectations and declining satisfactions as a cause of some great revolutions and a contained rebellion. In Graham, H. D. & Gurr, T. R. (Eds.). The history of violence in America. New York: Bantam Books, 1969.Google Scholar
Downes, B.A critical reexamination of the social and political characteristics of riot cities. Social Science Quarterly, 1970, 51, 349–360.Google Scholar
Downes, B.Social and political characteristics of riot cities: A comparative study. Social Science Quarterly, 1968, 49, 504–520.Google Scholar
Ehrlich, I.Participation in illegitimate activities: A theoretical and empirical investigation. Journal of Political Economy, 1973, 81, 521–565.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Feagin, J. R., & Hahn, H.Ghetto revolts: The politics of violence in American cities. New York: Macmillan, 1973.Google Scholar
Fogelson, R.Violence as protest. Garden City, N.J.: Doubleday, 1971.Google Scholar
Fogelson, R., & Hill, R. B.Who riots: A study of participation in the 1967 riots. Supplementary Studies for the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1968.Google Scholar
Ford, W. F., & Moore, J. H.Additional evidence on the social and political characteristics of riot cities. Social Science Quarterly, 1970, 51, 339–348.Google Scholar
Friedman, M., & Savage, L. J.The utility analysis of choices involving risk. In Page, A. N. (Ed.). Utility theory. New York: Wiley, 1968.Google Scholar
Frohlich, N., Hunt, T., Oppenheimer, J. A., & Wagner, R. H.Individual contributions for collective goods: Alternative models. Journal of Conflict Resolution, 1975, 19, 310–329.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frohlich, N., & Oppenheimer, J. A.I get by with a little help from my friends. World Politics, 1970, 23, 104–120.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frohlich, N., Oppenheimer, J. A., & Young, O.Political leadership and collective goods. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1971.Google Scholar
Gerschwender, J. A.Civil rights protest and riots: A disappearing distinction. Social Science Quarterly, 1968, 49, 474–493.Google Scholar
Gerschwender, J. A.Explorations in the theory of social movements and revolutions. Social Forces, 1968, 47, 127–135.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gerschwender, J. A., & Singer, B. D.Deprivation and the Detroit riot. Social Problems, 1970, 17, 457–463.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gunning, P.An economic approach to riot analysis. Public Choice, 1972, 13, 31–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hardin, R.Collective action as an agreeable n-person prisoner's dilemma. Behavioral Science, 1971, 16, 172–181.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hardin, R.Collective action. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1982.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Head, J.Public goods and public policy. Public Finance, 1962, 17, 197–219.Google Scholar
Ireland, T.The rationale of revolt. Papers in Non-Market Decision Making, 1967, 3, 49–66.Google Scholar
Jibou, R. M.City characteristics, differential stratification and the occurrence of interracial violence. Social Science Quarterly, 1971, 52, 508–520.Google Scholar
Kerner, O., et al.Report of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders. New York: Bantam Books, 1968.Google Scholar
Lieberson, S., & Silverman, A. R.The precipitants and underlying conditions of race riots. American Sociological Review, 1965, 30, 887–898.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lieske, J. A.The conditions of racial violence in American cities: A developmental synthesis. American Political Science Review, 1978, 72, 1324–1340.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lieske, J. A.Inadvertent empirical theory: A critique of “The J-Curve Theory and the Black Urban Riots.” Political Methodology, 1979, 6, 29–62.Google Scholar
Lupsha, P.On theories of urban violence. Urban Affairs Quarterly, 1969, 4, 273–296.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mason, D.Who riots: An empirical examination of the “underclass” versus the “new urban black” hypotheses. Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Southwest Political Science Association, Houston, 03, 1983.Google Scholar
McElroy, J. L., & Singell, L. D.Riot and non-riot cities: An examination of structural contours. Urban Affairs Quarterly, 1973, 8, 281–300.Google Scholar
McPhail, C.Civil disorder participation: A critical examination of recent research. American Sociological Review, 1971, 56, 1058–1073.Google Scholar
Michael, R. T.The effect of education on efficiency in consumption. New York: National Bureau of Economic Research, 1972.Google Scholar
Miller, A. H., Bolce, L., & Halligan, M. R.The J-curve theory and the black urban riots: An empirical test of progressive relative deprivation theory. American Political Science Review, 1977, 71, 864–882.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miller, A. H., Bolce, L., & Halligan, M. R.The new urban black revisited. Ethnicity, 1976, 3, 338–367.Google Scholar
Murphy, R. J., & Watson, J. M.The structure of discontent: The relation between social structure, grievance and support for the Los Angeles riot. In Cohen, N. (Ed.). The Los Angeles riots: A social psychological study. New York: Praeger, 1975.Google Scholar
Murtagh, J.Public and private sector discrimination: Effects on collective stigmatic violence. Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Southwest Political Science Association, Houston, 03, 1983. (a)Google Scholar
Murtagh, J.The preconditions of public goods discrimination: The effect of metropolitan segregation on riot occurrence. Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association, Chicago, 04, 1983. (b)Google Scholar
Olson, M.The logic of collective action. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1965.Google Scholar
Roeder, P. G.Rational revolution: Extensions of the “by-product” model of revolutionary involvement. Western Political Quarterly, 1982, 35, 5–23.Google Scholar
Rogowski, R.Rational legitimacy: A theory of political support. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1974.Google Scholar
Salert, B.Revolutions and revolutionaries. New York: Elsevier, 1976.Google Scholar
Samuelson, P. A.A pure theory of public expenditure. Review of Economics and Statistics, 1954, 36, 387–390.Google Scholar
Sears, D. O., & McConahey, J. B.The politics of violence: The new urban black and the Watts riot. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1973.Google Scholar
Silver, A. A.Official interpretations of racial riots. In Connery, R. (Ed.). Urban riots. New York: Vintage Books, 1968.Google Scholar
Silver, M.Political revolution and repression: An economic approach. Public Choice, 1976, 17, 63–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Skolnik, J. H. (Ed.). The politics of protest. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1969.Google Scholar
Spilerman, S.The causes of racial disturbances: A comparison of alternative explanations. American Sociological Review, 1970, 35, 627–649.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spilerman, S.The causes of racial disturbance: Tests of an explanation. American Sociological Review, 1971, 36, 427–451.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tullock, G.The paradox of revolution. Public Choice, 1971, 11, 89–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.