Abstract
A number of general issues in the social sciences are currently being addressed through consideration of the free-rider problem, also known as the problem of collective action. Many different ways of comparing and evaluating competing social theories can be co-ordinated as discussions of the problem. In attending to its relatively simple structure fundamental issues routinely arise, concerning the basis of social order, the nature of power, and the invariants of human nature itself, if such exist. In this paper I adopt a sociological perspective in defending the plausibility of one kind of solution to the problem, and then explore the general significance of that solution in a frankly speculative way.
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