Collective action and the policy process

This paper seeks to illustrate different approaches to collective action and their relation with particular types of public policy. We analyze the impact of econonomics and non-economics collective action driven perspectives on public policy theory. The former perspective is conducive to a rational approach to policy. However, as reciprocity enters into collective action reasoning, then public policy becomes interested in understanding behavioural change in terms of such relations. Finally,, we conclude on the relevance of collective action for the study of public policy and highlight the circumstances that may foster such analysis.