ABSTRACT
In previous chapters, it has generally been assumed that group members are possessive individualists, that they act wholly from their own interest. Since not everyone is always a possessive individualist (Homo economicus, or rational man), it is interesting to consider what happens if this assumption is violated in some degree. There may be collective action problems even when members of a group are not only possessive individualists, but also contractarians, that is, people who play fair, who try to cooperate if others do. For such a group, success depends in part on whether there is a clear or, in Schelling’s term, a “prominent” notion of what is fair. 1 Unfortunately, it seems that there can be no generally compelling notion of fairness, that even in some very simple contractarian situations, substantial disagreement may balk cooperation.
