Australian Politics and Policy - Senior, 2019a

Australian Politics and Policy
identity, marking one as belonging to a group or standing for a cause. This, in
turn, can bring status, enjoyment and social capital.
• Purposive benefits: relatetothegroup’spurpose,suchastochangeapolicy,
promote an idea, or pursue a particular action. 23 These purposive benefits are
also termed ‘expressive’ benefits, as people join to voice their values and ideals. 24
Clark and Wilson argued that one or more of these benefits must be provided to
members to either entice them to join or to remain part of the organisation. A
pressure group’s continued existence depends upon members sharing in the group
benefits, and group organisers extracting advantage from those members. 25
Collective action and free riders
This leads to debates about how public-spirited pressure groups and movements
are. Mancur Olson argued that collective action was primarily motivated by desire
for individual benefit, but a benefit not available to a person acting alone. This
‘rational choice’ approach focuses on the cost–benefit calculation of members in
joining groups and movements. In this model, groups form because some
individuals perceive opportunities to benefit, possibly at the expense of others. 26
Thus, some pressure groups have been seen to profit at a higher expense, such as
seeking a subsidy for a small group paid for by general taxation.
This approach also explains paradoxes in group formation: if groups produce
public benefits that all can access, what is the incentive of participation for the
individual? If groups become too large, some may benefit without paying the costs
of the group. This problem of ‘free riding’ can be seen in the way some groups
attempt to restrict the benefits of their collective action to their membership, such
as when unions historically enforced ‘no ticket no start’ requirements that
workplaces must employ union members.
Justice and altruism
Other scholars observe that rational choice fails to explain participation, or
recognise the role of ethics, justice and morality in tempering the ‘selfish’
motivations of individuals and pressure groups. 27 The field of behavioural
economics recognises that human decisions are not always based on perfect
rationality, and uses insights from psychology to explore various motivations for
behaviour in exchange transactions. 28 People judge intuitively, automatically and
emotionally, in line with their experience, and emotions are important aspects of
23 Clark and Wilson 1961, 134–5.
24 Salisbury 1969, 16.
25 Salisbury 1969.
26 Marsh 1995, 50; Matthews 1980, 455; Olson 2002 [1965].
27 Cigler 1990; Flam and King 2005; Sen 1977.
28 Thaler and Sunstein 2008.
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