Information Problems Information problems, in contrast, plague groups of all sizes. Information asymmetries occur when an actor has information that others do not have. In this context, stakeholders who know more tend to have significant bargaining advantages over other groups and, hence, have high stakes in conserving such discrepancies. Voters often lack basic information about the electoral process, rules, procedures, political candidates, and policy options. Low turnout generated by missing information prevents groups from electing the candidate or party that would best represent them in legislatures and is thus a manifestation of a collective action problem. Opaqueness of budgetary processes and general lack of transparency about government activities impede the coordination of civil society or opposition groups around policy issues that could trigger greater accountability. A later chapter is dedicated entirely to informational constraints in policy change. In addition to missing information, moral hazard and adverse selection, two special cases of information asymmetries that will be elaborated in chapter 7, can be serious obstacles to collective action. Moral hazard refers to a situation in which the better-informed individuals or actors engage in risky actions for an organization or collective precisely because they do not bear the full costs of such actions. Leaders of political parties, social movements, or reform teams do not always know enough about the real incentives and stakes of the rank and file within their group. This lack of information about the true actions of the members of an organization often does not allow leaders to adequately monitor commitment to the movement or party. For example, in many countries legislators may win an election because of their association with a party with a reputation for competency, prudence, and the like. However, if after the election such legislators can support risky bills and easily change political parties for opportunistic reasons, without penalty or negative career consequences, the collective action capacity of parties to pursue policies in parliaments is greatly reduced, and volatility increases. Adverse selection refers to circumstances in which, for example, the leaders of organizations or coalitions have no way of properly assessing their new recruits’ or members’ true degree of individual commitment to the organizational goals. In cases of adverse selection, the actors who lack ideological or organizational commitment are also paradoxically more likely to join. For example, if a civil society organization offers concrete material benefits to all the new recruits to a citizen group advocating social accountability, as opposed to only the ones who prove commitment, it might attract members who are not interested in collective action per se and greater Âaccountability but rather in the short-term tangible handouts. In this case, The Collective Action Problem in Development: The Why Question
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