Public Goods Theory from Eighteenth Century Political Philosophy to Twentieth Century Economics

Some scholars have studiedMancur Olson's legacy by investigating theeffects of his research on the socialsciences (McLean, 2000). Others havescrutinized the logical and empiricalimplications of his theories (Sandler,1992; Marsh, 1976; Chamberlin, 1974;Frohlich and Oppenheimer, 1970). A thirdgroup have quietly claimed that hisgreatest work, The logic of collectiveaction, was little more than apopularization of earlier ideas (Dowding,1997; Chamberlain, 1966). This paperattempts to exonerate Olson of the latterclaim by reviewing the major contributionsto collective action theory before his timeand comparing them to The logic ofcollective action.