Public Policy and Social Welfare
1 total work
v. 21
Power and rules are inseparable. Rules without power to back them up quickly become empty forms. Power without rules does not exist, as the exercise of power always generates rules. Power and rules thus constitute the two sides of the "organizational phenomenon" which underlies all forms of collective action in whatever context it will take place. Because it stabilizes the complex, unstable and potentially conflictual universe of social interaction, it is able to sustain and structure entrepreneurship and the collectivce action which it creates. This work analyzes the "organizational phenomenon" in its generality and its dynamics as the processes of structuration and restructuration of the various empirical contexts in which collective action takes place. It thus shows the utility and the relevance of an organizational approach to collective action. It presents a general framework for the analysis and understanding of the emergence, the maintenance and the consequences of these cooperative structures of "local orders" and argues that such an approach can usefully be applied to the study of collective action in all kinds of field of action.