One for all : the logic of group conflict

After a preliminary account of the structure of the social problems under discussion (chapter 2), this book addresses four issues: (1) the problem of personal identification with a group (chapter 3); the way certain norms benefit from reinforcement through self-interest incentives (chapters 4 and 5); (3) the way that group identification can lead to violence which is commonly misread as simply reflecting elemental hatred (chapter 6); and (4) the way these arguments undercut the normative claims of communitarianism and of other group-solipsist moralities (normative communitarianism is the political theorists" variant of ethnic identification) (chapter 7). A brief retrospective is offered in conclusion (chapter 8). One could say this is a study of norms or of conflict, especially ethnic conflict. But its actual focus is more specific than either of these. It is about how individual self-interest is or is not consistent with group identification and action on behalf of the group. Norms and conflict are of concern only incidentally, because they have large roles in the molding of self-interest into group identification. The norms of concern here are those that motivate strong behaviors that seem in the abstract contrary to interest. The conflicts of concern are those that divide one group from another and sometimes lead to violence. In both cases, the focus is on the apparent failure of the logic of collective action in manifold cases of spontaneous and organized individual actions on behalf of often large collectives. And throughout there is concern with the normative implications of group identification. Includes references. (Author abstract)