IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/socsci/v90y2009i3p538-552.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Won't You Be My Neighbor? Norms of Cooperation, Public Broadcasting, and the Collective Action Problem

Author

Listed:
  • Martha Kropf

Abstract

Objectives. The logic of collective action suggests that public broadcasting stations should not receive the empirically observed level of member support they do. Why do people contribute to public television when they can view it without contributing? Methods. The hypothesis tested is that “norms of cooperation” govern the behavior of individuals in collective action situations. This article tests the hypothesis with an original survey of public television viewers in three large communities. Results. The survey data provide support for the “norms of cooperation” hypothesis. The higher the level of characteristics of an individual that measure cooperation, the more likely the individual is to give to public broadcasting, all other factors being equal. Conclusions. Norms of cooperation—an important part of social capital—help overcome the logic of collective action where it concerns public television contributions.

Suggested Citation

  • Martha Kropf, 2009. "Won't You Be My Neighbor? Norms of Cooperation, Public Broadcasting, and the Collective Action Problem," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 90(3), pages 538-552, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:socsci:v:90:y:2009:i:3:p:538-552
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1540-6237.2009.00630.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6237.2009.00630.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1540-6237.2009.00630.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Fisher, Robert J & Ackerman, David, 1998. "The Effects of Recognition and Group Need on Volunteerism: A Social Norm Perspective," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 25(3), pages 262-275, December.
    2. E. Ostrom, 2010. "A Behavioral Approach to the Rational Choice Theory of Collective Action Presidential Address, American political Science Association, 1997," Public administration issues, Higher School of Economics, issue 1, pages 5-52.
    3. Knack, Stephen & Kropf, Martha, 1998. "For shame! The effect of community cooperative context on the probability of voting," MPRA Paper 27258, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. DiPasquale, Denise & Glaeser, Edward L., 1999. "Incentives and Social Capital: Are Homeowners Better Citizens?," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(2), pages 354-384, March.
    5. Kingma, Bruce Robert, 1989. "An Accurate Measurement of the Crowd-Out Effect, Income Effect, and Price Effect for Charitable Contributions," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 97(5), pages 1197-1207, October.
    6. Knack, Stephen, 1992. "Civic norms, social sanctions and voting turnout," MPRA Paper 28080, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. William N. Evans & Wallace E. Oates & Robert M. Schwab & William N. Evans & Wallace E. Oates & Robert M. Schwab, 2004. "Measuring Peer Group Effects: A Study of Teenage Behavior," Chapters, in: Environmental Policy and Fiscal Federalism, chapter 13, pages 232-257, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    8. Brunner, Eric J, 1998. "Free Riders or Easy Riders?: An Examination of the Voluntary Provision of Public Radio," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 97(4), pages 587-604, December.
    9. Silver, Brian D. & Anderson, Barbara A. & Abramson, Paul R., 1986. "Who Overreports Voting?," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 80(2), pages 613-624, June.
    10. Finifter, Ada W., 1974. "The Friendship Group as a Protective Environment for Political Deviants," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 68(2), pages 607-625, June.
    11. Stephen Knack, 1992. "Civic Norms, Social Sanctions, and Voter Turnout," Rationality and Society, , vol. 4(2), pages 133-156, April.
    12. MacKuen, Michael & Brown, Courtney, 1987. "Political Context and Attitude Change," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 81(2), pages 471-490, June.
    13. Robert J. Fisher & Mark Vandenbosch & Kersi D. Antia, 2008. "An Empathy-Helping Perspective on Consumers' Responses to Fund-Raising Appeals," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 35(3), pages 519-531, February.
    14. Goetze, Linda & Glover, T F & Biswas, B, 1993. "The Effects of Group Size and Income on Contributions to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 77(2), pages 407-414, October.
    15. Putnam, Robert D., 1966. "Political Attitudes and the Local Community," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 60(3), pages 640-654, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Elizabeth Wemlinger & Martha Kropf, 2013. "Not a Suburban Soccer Mom? Political Engagement Among Lower SES Women," Poverty & Public Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 5(1), pages 48-66, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Martha E. Kropf & Johnny Blair, 2005. "Eliciting Survey Cooperation," Evaluation Review, , vol. 29(6), pages 559-575, December.
    2. Coleman, Stephen, 2005. "Testing Theories with Qualitative and Quantitative Predictions," MPRA Paper 105171, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Coleman, Stephen, 2014. "Evolution of the Russian Political Party System under the Influence of Social Conformity: 1993-2011," MPRA Paper 59038, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Knack, Stephen & Kropf, Martha, 2003. "Viewers like you: community norms and contributions to public broadcasting," MPRA Paper 27248, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Coleman, Stephen, 2018. "Voting and conformity: Russia, 1993–2016," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 87-95.
    6. Coleman, S., 2010. "Russian Election Reform and the Effect of Social Conformity on Voting and the Party System: 2007 and 2008," Journal of the New Economic Association, New Economic Association, issue 5, pages 73-90.
    7. Brunner, Eric & Sonstelie, Jon, 2003. "School finance reform and voluntary fiscal federalism," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(9-10), pages 2157-2185, September.
    8. Philip Keefer & Christopher Kilby, 2021. "Introduction to the special issue: In memoriam Stephen Knack," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 16(3), pages 473-493, July.
    9. Bamieh, Omar & Cintolesi, Andrea, 2021. "Intergenerational transmission in regulated professions and the role of familism," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 192(C), pages 857-879.
    10. Mechtenberg, Lydia & Tyran, Jean-Robert, 2019. "Voter motivation and the quality of democratic choice," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 241-259.
    11. Brueckner, Jan K. & Largey, Ann G., 2008. "Social interaction and urban sprawl," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(1), pages 18-34, July.
    12. Stocké, Volker, 2005. "Response privacy and elapsed time since election day as determinants for vote overreporting," Papers 05-42, Sonderforschungsbreich 504.
    13. Sabatini, Fabio, 2006. "The Empirics of Social Capital and Economic Development: A Critical Perspective," Knowledge, Technology, Human Capital Working Papers 12097, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM).
    14. Anna L. Harvey, 2001. "Partisanship As A Social Convention," Rationality and Society, , vol. 13(4), pages 462-504, November.
    15. Niklas Potrafke & Felix Roesel, 2020. "Opening hours of polling stations and voter turnout: Evidence from a natural experiment," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 15(1), pages 133-163, January.
    16. Stocké, Volker & Stark, Tobias, 2005. "Stichprobenverzerrung durch Item-Nonresponse in der international vergleichenden Politikwissenschaft," Sonderforschungsbereich 504 Publications 05-43, Sonderforschungsbereich 504, Universität Mannheim;Sonderforschungsbereich 504, University of Mannheim.
    17. Niklas Potrafke & Felix Roesel, 2019. "A banana republic? The effects of inconsistencies in the counting of votes on voting behavior," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 178(1), pages 231-265, January.
    18. Elinor Ostrom, 2010. "Analyzing collective action," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 41(s1), pages 155-166, November.
    19. John Gibson & Bonggeun Kim, 2018. "Home Ownership and Political Participation: Longitudinal Evidence Suggests There is No Causal Relationship," Working Papers in Economics 18/02, University of Waikato.
    20. Elizabeth Wemlinger & Martha Kropf, 2013. "Not a Suburban Soccer Mom? Political Engagement Among Lower SES Women," Poverty & Public Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 5(1), pages 48-66, March.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:socsci:v:90:y:2009:i:3:p:538-552. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0038-4941 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.