ABSTRACT
Collective action, however, may also be responsible chosen, that is to say, and self-determined for a purpose which is admitted to be good or bad; and therefore it is a thing which is either morally justifiable or subject to moral condemnation. The sense, indeed, in which these moral obligations are self-accepted and self-imposed collectively may be something more entangled than what we take to be the more straightforward interpretation which applies to individual human beings; but there is collective control and collective direction for an object of intended value or disvalue, and there is moral accountability wherever this occurs. In point of fact, therefore, the responsibility for collective action is very unequally apportioned among those who act in concert, and the degree of apportionment must often remain indeterminate. A democracy is at least conceivable in which the few bear all the responsibilities of collective action in order that all may enjoy the result.
