Interest Groups

"One obstacle, it would seem, to any argument that large and small groups operate according to fundamentally different principles, is the fact, emphasized earlier, that any group or organization, large or small, works for some collective benefit that by its very nature will benefit all of the members of the group in question. Though all of the members of the group therefore have a common interest in obtaining this collective benefit, they have no common interest in paying the cost of providing that collective good."
This excerpt from Olson's article zooms into the free rider problem. When there is a large, organized group of people working toward a common goal there are bound to be some members who will attempt to reap the benefits of the group without putting in work to achieve the results. The larger the group, the easier it is for a person to "free-ride". This occurs because it takes more than a common objective to bring people together into collective action. An individual’s relationship to the group, and their value to it plays a major role in the quality of the group.  The problem with free riders is that they collect benefits without earning a right to them and thus offer nothing in return to the group. When others notice that there are people getting along by cheating the system then they in turn logically seek the same results. This leads to a greater number of free riders who threaten the effectiveness of the group. Olson thinks that this issue can be addressed by limiting the size of a group. The smaller a group is the more intimacy there will be. However, this doesn't meant that smaller is always better. The group must be large enough to make an actual impact through its organized efforts.