Carolina at Chapel Hill at Chapel HillWe develop a dynamic network model of collective action that explains how collective action can arise in the absence of selective incentives or disincentives from the voluntary action of rational actors in large groups. We show that the search for balance in social interaction among interdependent actors can yield a cascade of activism and result in a successful social movement. The characteristics of actors critical for movement success are identified. We also explore the structural conditions underlying a successful cascade of activism and thus identify the social dynamics of and the structural conditions for collective action in human society. X V develop and test a dynamic model that accounts for voluntary collective action across a range of contexts. These diverse contexts enable us to identify the social dynamics of and the structural conditions for collective action in human society.

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In the empirical analysis of information asymmetry in automobile insurance markets, prior research used a dichotomous measurement approach that induces excessive bundling in coverage measurements and sample selection biases. To improve on the conditional correlation method for testing information asymmetry, we propose a multinomial measurement approach that constructs coverage categories at ordered multinomial levels. With this approach, we find robust evidence of information asymmetry in both coverage area and coverage amount choices, which we could not find with the dichotomous measurement approach. It thus demonstrates the sensitivity of the empirical findings to the method used to measure insurance coverage. Copyright (c) The Journal of Risk and Insurance, 2009.

Recent scholarship has revived the notion that collective action is subject to both rational and emotional processes and that any account that fails to examine emotional dynamics risks a fundamental misunderstanding of the dynamics of collective action. Yet few studies have theorized the mechanisms through which emotions enable collective action. Without a proper identification of such mechanisms, any attempt to "bring emotions back" risks failing to address the complex but critical relationship between emotions and rational action and reverting to the classic "overly emotional" accounts of collective action. This article develops an emotions theory of preference formation by which emotions provide a commitment mechanism for activism by altering the salience hierarchy of personal identities and preferences. To bring empirical evidence to bear upon the theory, I examine the testimonials written by some visitors to the grave of Park Sung Hee, who cremated herself in South Korea in 1991.

Although economists and sociologists have often concluded that values and other internal states have little causal weight in determining behavior, there is some evidence that the tide is turning in this respect. This paper contributes to the recent revival of interest in subjectivity by comparing two different kinds of survey methods that can be used to measure values in general, and the value of civic-mindedness in particular. The explicit approach --widely used in current empirical research --derives value measures on the basis of direct questions asked in nationally representative surveys such as the General Social Survey and the National Election Studies. The factorial approach imputes values indirectly from answers to vignettes. In this study, the explicit approach is revealed to have greater predictive validity but substantially lower construct validity than the factorial approach. This finding highlights the distinction between prediction and explanation in social research, and casts doubt on the adequacy of revealed preference theory.

With the pursuit of ethnic idenitity as an example, we deduce some testable propositions on ethnic mobilization and polarization from a graphic analysis of a purposive action model. The method allows incorporation of identity in collective action models. In a village of two ethnic groups, people pursue two idenitities, their own ethnicity and a shared villager identity. Pursuit of their identities is constrained by the inter- and intra-ethnic organization of the village. We show that under fragile" inter-ethnic village organization, small changes in ethnocentrism can precipitate much change in the ethnic relations, whereas when inter-ethnic organization is "robust, " inter-ethnic relations change little, even when ethnocentrism changes a great deal. The effects of ethnic mobilization are studied, as when ethnic moderates close ranks with extremists to create polarization. The pursuit of political identity (dissidents, pragmatists) in repressive regimes can be similarly modeled and studied for predicting opposition to the regime.

The Protestant Reformation swept across Central Europe in the early-sixteenth century, leaving cities divided into Evangelical and Catholic camps as some instituted reforms and others remained loyal to the Roman Church. In offering a new explanation of the Reformation, we develop a theory that identifies ideologically mobilized students as bridge actors-that is, agents of religious contention who helped concatenate incidents of local insurgency into a loosely organized Evangelical movement by bridging structural holes. Building on existing literature, we offer a novel way to measure the influence of contending religious movements through university enrollments; we propose that the institution of reform can be partially explained by the varying degree of exposure that cities had to Evangelical activist and Catholic loyalist university students. Based on statistical analysis of a novel dataset comprising cities in the Holy Roman Empire with a population of 2,000 or more from 1523 to 1545, we find support for the role of university students as bridge actors linking critical communities at universities to arenas of urban contention. The greater a city's exposure to heterodox ideology through city-to-university ties, the greater its odds of instituting the Reformation.

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