In a book that challenges the most widely held ideas of why
individuals engage in collective conflict, Russell Hardin offers a
timely, crucial explanation of group action in its most destructive
forms. Contrary to those observers who attribute group violence to
irrationality, primordial instinct, or complex psychology, Hardin
uncovers a systematic exploitation of self-interest in the
underpinnings of group identification and collective violence.
Using examples from Mafia vendettas to ethnic violence in places
such as Bosnia and Rwanda, he describes the social and economic
circumstances that set this violence into motion. Hardin explains
why hatred alone does not necessarily start wars but how leaders
cultivate it to mobilize their people. He also reveals the thinking
behind the preemptive strikes that contribute to much of the
violence between groups, identifies the dangers of "particularist"
communitarianism, and argues for government structures to prevent
any ethnic or other group from having too much sway.
Exploring conflict between groups such as Serbs and Croats, Hutu
and Tutsi, Northern Irish Catholics and Protestants, Hardin vividly
illustrates the danger that arises when individual and group
interests merge. In these examples, groups of people have been
governed by movements that managed to reflect their members'
personal interests--mainly by striving for political and economic
advances at the expense of other groups and by closing themselves
off from society at large. The author concludes that we make a
better and safer world if we design our social institutions to
facilitate individual efforts to achieve personal goals than if we
concentrate on the ethnic political makeup of our respective
societies.
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