Societal Problems as Public Bads
Summary
Chapter 1 Introduction
- Social problems: refers to problems occurring in social life – that is, in relations and
interactions between people
- Societal problem: occurs when a substantial group of citizens perceives a certain state
of affairs as problematic
o We view societal problems as public bads
Only recently societal problems become an issue of major public concern
- Whereas the state was seen as an institution of power based on hierarchy, society was
an association of free people
- Trias politica
How societal problems are recognised and bring about
collective action
Pollution example:
Pollution situation arises, creates problems in health risks
and air pollution. This eventually becomes a societal
problem that need to be on the public agenda. To do that,
there is need for social status or contacts with any political
authorities. Lastly, certain societal problems need
government action
Example poverty: for centuries poverty was not seen as a
problem but simply as an unfortunate fact of life, so never
on the public agenda
But with social media – easier access to public agenda
Collective action to societal problems: free rider problems may show up, whereby certain
actors stop contributing to the collectively produced public good while still reaping the
benefits of it
More government intervention: interventionist states
- Example state intervention after WWII1: generous welfare state systems leading to
lower employment rate and a rise in government expenditures
o Cost-benefit analyses of government action is complicated
Politicians push aside societal cost-benefit trade-offs to get re-elected
- Political business cycle: fluctuations in economic performance that hinge on the
timing of elections
Social norms: concrete behavioural rules and expectations derived from people’s values
1
, - Can be considered a public good - form of social capital: a productive asset for a
group, from which each individual member of the group may benefit
What constitutes a just and ethically defensible society?
- Immanuel Kant’s categorical imperative: the notion that one should behave in such a
way that one’s behaviour could serve as the basis for general legislation
- Rawls and Nozick’s state of nature: a clean slate where people are unrestrained by
any pre-existing rules. People will establish collective provisions that can offer a
certain amount of security and submit themselves to obligations imposed by the state,
such as paying taxes. But what rights should individuals keep for themselves and what
not?
Rawls:
- Introduces the original position thought experiment, where individuals design a just
society without knowing their future social status and abilities. So choose principles
that ensure fairness.
o Principle of equal liberty: basic rights and protections for everyone.
o Difference principle: allowing inequalities only if they benefit the least
advantaged and everyone has equal opportunities to access various roles
- Societal fairness including higher pay for jobs like doctors and needed state
interventions to prevent social inequality or discrimination, or provide education
Nozick:
- Prioritises individual freedom and "negative liberties": private property rights and the
right to freedom of speech, creating a "night-watchman" state (only basic functions)
o Non-aggression principle: force should never be used against others
- No "positive liberties": like rights to healthcare or housing, because all of these
entitlements would entail other members of society being subject to the use of force
Political ideologies:
- Socialism, liberalism, or conservatism
- Progressivism, libertarianism, and conservatism
o Liberals prioritize individual freedom and limited state intervention
o Socialists advocate for a larger state role to support the less advantaged
o Conservatives reject rationalism and universalism: focus on tradition,
cautioning against rapid social change and prioritise order and stability over
equality or liberty
To what extent the state should take responsibility for resolving societal problems very much
depends on the political ideology?
Aside from the state, we can
distinguish three main spheres of
society
Tensions arises at many points, like:
- Multinationals avoiding taxes
2
, - State intervention by child abuse
- Politicians banning burqa’s
Media and religion each play complex roles within society
- Media can lead to propaganda
- Religion also varies by region (in Western Europe, it's increasingly private, while in
the U.S., religion remains active in the public sphere)
4 main types of goods: private goods, club goods, common pool resources, and public goods.
- The excludability of a good refers to the extent to which it is possible to prevent
people from consuming that good
- The rivalry of a good refers to the extent to which any one person’s consumption of
that good reduces other people’s opportunities to consume it.
- Private goods, which are excludable, are typically supplied by the market, as the price
system balances supply and demand
- Public goods are often state-provided because they are non-excludable, meaning
private suppliers can’t profit from them.
o Example lighthouse: it benefits all ships, but charging each user is impractical,
so private providers are unlikely to build it
o Next to that: public goods require collective action, which is difficult to
coordinate without state intervention
- Common pool resources, like communal land, face overuse, known as the "tragedy of
the commons," as individuals prioritize personal gain over shared costs
o State control or privatization were seen as solutions, but also small
communities with trust and social control are solutions according to Elinor
Ostrom
Public goods and common-pool resources face challenges due to incentives for "free riding”
Nearly all private and club goods are supplied by the market, except in communist or socialist
countries
2 important notes:
- Distinguish between public goods and goods provided publicly: services were passed into
private hands (such as waste collection), but still serve the public interest
- Goods may move between categories, due to cultural norms or technological innovations
(gated communities with expensive houses or charging road users in peak hours)
3
, Social capital: features of social organization such as networks, norms, and social trust that
facilitate coordination and cooperation for mutual benefit
- It can help in producing other public goods but is also a public good in itself
- Combination of trust, social norms, and mutual expectations as a form of social
capital: for example between doctors and their patients.
o In US this social capital has eroded over time: rise of malpractice suits brought
by patients against their doctors. Disappearance of trust has led to reduced
access to health care
- Positive effects of social capital: if people establish norms of cooperation in
organizations/social networks, they will be more likely to succeed in improving safety,
protecting the environment, preventing poverty, and achieving other desirable ends.
- Negative effects of social capital: development on exclusivity – corruption and
excessive social control (this can hinder integration). It then gives rise to public bads
3 criteria for making a selection for societal problems:
1. We deal with societal problems in the industrialized parts of the world
2. We focus on societal problems that are regarded as important by the general public or
in political debates.
3. We concentrate on problems that can be seen as public bads problems that concern
society with public good characteristics and that often arise as unintended
consequences of individual-level behaviours
Chapter 2 Analytical framework
- Descriptions: comprise statements of a qualitative or quantitative nature that characterize
the phenomenon in terms of such things as its distribution within the population.
- Explanations: aims to reveal the underlying determinants and causal forces
Macro-micro-macro model or Coleman’s boat
1. Macro-level conditions influence the micro-level conditions in which individual actors
operate, shaping, among other things, their opportunity structure.
2. Given these micro-level conditions, as well as their preferences and objectives,
individual actors will behave in certain ways, resulting in certain micro-level
outcomes.
3. The aggregation of all these micro-level outcomes subsequently gives rise to certain
macrolevel outcomes (including simple or complex aggregation).
4. Through the preceding three steps, we can connect macro-level conditions to
macrolevel outcomes via the underlying micro-level processes.
Hog cycle phenomenon: the cyclical patterns in the supply and prices of certain products
(which explains the logic behind Coleman’s boat)
- Example pig market – price of pork is high, so more farmers buying pigs. But surplus
of pork is the consequence, leading to drop the price of pork. Less famers buy pork
etc.
- Methodological individualism: In order to understand macro-level phenomena we
have to turn to the underlying micro-level behaviours (to explain the process of an
event)
4
Summary
Chapter 1 Introduction
- Social problems: refers to problems occurring in social life – that is, in relations and
interactions between people
- Societal problem: occurs when a substantial group of citizens perceives a certain state
of affairs as problematic
o We view societal problems as public bads
Only recently societal problems become an issue of major public concern
- Whereas the state was seen as an institution of power based on hierarchy, society was
an association of free people
- Trias politica
How societal problems are recognised and bring about
collective action
Pollution example:
Pollution situation arises, creates problems in health risks
and air pollution. This eventually becomes a societal
problem that need to be on the public agenda. To do that,
there is need for social status or contacts with any political
authorities. Lastly, certain societal problems need
government action
Example poverty: for centuries poverty was not seen as a
problem but simply as an unfortunate fact of life, so never
on the public agenda
But with social media – easier access to public agenda
Collective action to societal problems: free rider problems may show up, whereby certain
actors stop contributing to the collectively produced public good while still reaping the
benefits of it
More government intervention: interventionist states
- Example state intervention after WWII1: generous welfare state systems leading to
lower employment rate and a rise in government expenditures
o Cost-benefit analyses of government action is complicated
Politicians push aside societal cost-benefit trade-offs to get re-elected
- Political business cycle: fluctuations in economic performance that hinge on the
timing of elections
Social norms: concrete behavioural rules and expectations derived from people’s values
1
, - Can be considered a public good - form of social capital: a productive asset for a
group, from which each individual member of the group may benefit
What constitutes a just and ethically defensible society?
- Immanuel Kant’s categorical imperative: the notion that one should behave in such a
way that one’s behaviour could serve as the basis for general legislation
- Rawls and Nozick’s state of nature: a clean slate where people are unrestrained by
any pre-existing rules. People will establish collective provisions that can offer a
certain amount of security and submit themselves to obligations imposed by the state,
such as paying taxes. But what rights should individuals keep for themselves and what
not?
Rawls:
- Introduces the original position thought experiment, where individuals design a just
society without knowing their future social status and abilities. So choose principles
that ensure fairness.
o Principle of equal liberty: basic rights and protections for everyone.
o Difference principle: allowing inequalities only if they benefit the least
advantaged and everyone has equal opportunities to access various roles
- Societal fairness including higher pay for jobs like doctors and needed state
interventions to prevent social inequality or discrimination, or provide education
Nozick:
- Prioritises individual freedom and "negative liberties": private property rights and the
right to freedom of speech, creating a "night-watchman" state (only basic functions)
o Non-aggression principle: force should never be used against others
- No "positive liberties": like rights to healthcare or housing, because all of these
entitlements would entail other members of society being subject to the use of force
Political ideologies:
- Socialism, liberalism, or conservatism
- Progressivism, libertarianism, and conservatism
o Liberals prioritize individual freedom and limited state intervention
o Socialists advocate for a larger state role to support the less advantaged
o Conservatives reject rationalism and universalism: focus on tradition,
cautioning against rapid social change and prioritise order and stability over
equality or liberty
To what extent the state should take responsibility for resolving societal problems very much
depends on the political ideology?
Aside from the state, we can
distinguish three main spheres of
society
Tensions arises at many points, like:
- Multinationals avoiding taxes
2
, - State intervention by child abuse
- Politicians banning burqa’s
Media and religion each play complex roles within society
- Media can lead to propaganda
- Religion also varies by region (in Western Europe, it's increasingly private, while in
the U.S., religion remains active in the public sphere)
4 main types of goods: private goods, club goods, common pool resources, and public goods.
- The excludability of a good refers to the extent to which it is possible to prevent
people from consuming that good
- The rivalry of a good refers to the extent to which any one person’s consumption of
that good reduces other people’s opportunities to consume it.
- Private goods, which are excludable, are typically supplied by the market, as the price
system balances supply and demand
- Public goods are often state-provided because they are non-excludable, meaning
private suppliers can’t profit from them.
o Example lighthouse: it benefits all ships, but charging each user is impractical,
so private providers are unlikely to build it
o Next to that: public goods require collective action, which is difficult to
coordinate without state intervention
- Common pool resources, like communal land, face overuse, known as the "tragedy of
the commons," as individuals prioritize personal gain over shared costs
o State control or privatization were seen as solutions, but also small
communities with trust and social control are solutions according to Elinor
Ostrom
Public goods and common-pool resources face challenges due to incentives for "free riding”
Nearly all private and club goods are supplied by the market, except in communist or socialist
countries
2 important notes:
- Distinguish between public goods and goods provided publicly: services were passed into
private hands (such as waste collection), but still serve the public interest
- Goods may move between categories, due to cultural norms or technological innovations
(gated communities with expensive houses or charging road users in peak hours)
3
, Social capital: features of social organization such as networks, norms, and social trust that
facilitate coordination and cooperation for mutual benefit
- It can help in producing other public goods but is also a public good in itself
- Combination of trust, social norms, and mutual expectations as a form of social
capital: for example between doctors and their patients.
o In US this social capital has eroded over time: rise of malpractice suits brought
by patients against their doctors. Disappearance of trust has led to reduced
access to health care
- Positive effects of social capital: if people establish norms of cooperation in
organizations/social networks, they will be more likely to succeed in improving safety,
protecting the environment, preventing poverty, and achieving other desirable ends.
- Negative effects of social capital: development on exclusivity – corruption and
excessive social control (this can hinder integration). It then gives rise to public bads
3 criteria for making a selection for societal problems:
1. We deal with societal problems in the industrialized parts of the world
2. We focus on societal problems that are regarded as important by the general public or
in political debates.
3. We concentrate on problems that can be seen as public bads problems that concern
society with public good characteristics and that often arise as unintended
consequences of individual-level behaviours
Chapter 2 Analytical framework
- Descriptions: comprise statements of a qualitative or quantitative nature that characterize
the phenomenon in terms of such things as its distribution within the population.
- Explanations: aims to reveal the underlying determinants and causal forces
Macro-micro-macro model or Coleman’s boat
1. Macro-level conditions influence the micro-level conditions in which individual actors
operate, shaping, among other things, their opportunity structure.
2. Given these micro-level conditions, as well as their preferences and objectives,
individual actors will behave in certain ways, resulting in certain micro-level
outcomes.
3. The aggregation of all these micro-level outcomes subsequently gives rise to certain
macrolevel outcomes (including simple or complex aggregation).
4. Through the preceding three steps, we can connect macro-level conditions to
macrolevel outcomes via the underlying micro-level processes.
Hog cycle phenomenon: the cyclical patterns in the supply and prices of certain products
(which explains the logic behind Coleman’s boat)
- Example pig market – price of pork is high, so more farmers buying pigs. But surplus
of pork is the consequence, leading to drop the price of pork. Less famers buy pork
etc.
- Methodological individualism: In order to understand macro-level phenomena we
have to turn to the underlying micro-level behaviours (to explain the process of an
event)
4
