Mancur Olson’s Followers (71)

Mancur Olson

Born

in Grand Forks, North Dakota, The United States

January 22, 1932

Died

February 19, 1998

edit data

American economist and social scientist who, at the time of his death, worked at the University of Maryland, College Park. Among other areas, he made contributions to institutional economics on the role of private property, taxation, public goods, collective action and contract rights in economic development. Olson focused on the logical basis of interest group membership and participation. The reigning political theories of his day granted groups an almost primordial status. Some appealed to a natural human instinct for herding, others ascribed the formation of groups that are rooted in kinship to the process of modernization. Olson offered a radically different account of the logical basis of organized collective action.
In his first book, American economist and social scientist who, at the time of his death, worked at the University of Maryland, College Park. Among other areas, he made contributions to institutional economics on the role of private property, taxation, public goods, collective action and contract rights in economic development. Olson focused on the logical basis of interest group membership and participation. The reigning political theories of his day granted groups an almost primordial status. Some appealed to a natural human instinct for herding, others ascribed the formation of groups that are rooted in kinship to the process of modernization. Olson offered a radically different account of the logical basis of organized collective action.
In his first book, The Logic of Collective Action: Public Goods and the Theory of Groups (1965), he theorized that “only a separate and ‘selective’ incentive will stimulate a rational individual in a latent group to act in a group-oriented way”; that is, members of a large group will not act in the group's common interest unless motivated by personal gains (economic, social, etc.). He specifically distinguishes between large and small groups, the latter of which can act simply on a shared objective. Large groups, however, will not form or work towards a shared objective unless individual members are sufficiently motivated.
In 1982, he expanded the scope of his earlier work in an attempt to explain The Rise and Decline of Nations. The idea is that small distributional coalitions tend to form over time in countries. Groups like cotton-farmers, steel-producers, and labor unions will have the incentives to form lobby groups and influence policies in their favor. These policies will tend to be protectionist and anti-technology, and will therefore hurt economic growth; but since the benefits of these policies are selective incentives concentrated amongst the few coalitions members, while the costs are diffused throughout the whole population, the "Logic" dictates that there will be little public resistance to them. Hence as time goes on, and these distributional coalitions accumulate in greater and greater numbers, the nation burdened by them will fall into economic decline. Olson's idea is cited as an influence behind the Calmfors-Driffill hypothesis of collective bargaining.
In his final book, Power and Prosperity, Olson distinguished between the economic effects of different types of government, in particular, tyranny, anarchy and democracy. Olson argued that a "roving bandit" (under anarchy) has an incentive only to steal and destroy, whilst a "stationary bandit" (a tyrant) has an incentive to encourage a degree of economic success, since he will expect to be in power long enough to take a share of it. The stationary bandit thereby takes on the primordial function of government - protection of his citizens and property against roving bandits. Olson saw in the move from roving bandits to stationary bandits the seeds of civilization, paving the way for democracy, which improves incentives for good government by more closely aligning it with the wishes of the population. ...more

Combine Editions
Mancur Olson’s books

Average rating: 3.97 · 1,726 ratings · 136 reviews · 27 distinct works • Similar authors

	The Logic of Collective Action: Public Goods and the Theory of Groups 3.97 avg rating — 1,009 ratings — published 1965 — 45 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Rise and Decline of Nations: Economic Growth, Stagflation, and Social Rigidities 3.97 avg rating — 512 ratings — published 1982 — 23 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Power and Prosperity: Outgrowing Communist and Capitalist Dictatorships 4.04 avg rating — 163 ratings — published 2000 — 24 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	A Not-so-dismal Science: A Broader View of Economies and Societies by Mancur Olson (Editor), Satu Kähkönen (Editor) really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 7 ratings — published 2000 — 7 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	No-Growth Society by Mancur Olson, Hans H. Landsberg 4.20 avg rating — 5 ratings — published 1974 — 7 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Economics of the Wartime Shortage: A History of British Food Supplies in the Napoleonic War and in World Wars I and II it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 3 ratings — published 1963 — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	A New Approach to the Economics of Health Care (AEI Symposia, 81) really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 2 ratings — published 1981 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	How bright are the northern lights?: Some questions about Sweden it was ok 2.00 avg rating — 1 rating	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The No-Growth Society by Mancur Olson (Editor), Hans Landsberg (Editor) 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — published 1974 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Capitalism, Socialism, and Dictatorship: Outgrowing Communist and Capitalist Dictatorships 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Mancur Olson…

Quotes by Mancur Olson (?)

“To say a situation is ‘lost’ or hopeless is in one sense equivalent to saying it is
perfect, for in both cases efforts at improvement can bring no positive results.”
― Mancur Olson, The Logic of Collective Action: Public Goods and the Theory of Groups

4 likes

“Distributional coalitions slow down a society's capacity to adopt new technologies and to reallocate resources in response to changing conditions, and thereby reduce the rate of economic growth.”
― Mancur Olson, The Rise and Decline of Nations: Economic Growth, Stagflation and Social Rigidities

3 likes

Topics Mentioning This Author

topics	posts	views	last activity
100+ Books in 2025: LH's 100+ Books in 2013	20	77	Nov 25, 2013 07:12PM

Mancur Olson’s Followers (71)

Mancur Olson

Combine EditionsMancur Olson’s books

Topics Mentioning This Author

Combine Editions
Mancur Olson’s books