| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 89.3

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| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 89.3 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Collective Action under the Articles of Confederation. By Keith L. Dougherty. (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001. xii, 211 pp. $49.95, ISBN 0-521-78209-0.)

Collective Action under the Articles of Confederation reminds us of the divide that frequently separates historian from social scientist. According to Keith L. Dougherty, formulas such as the one above help us understand why some states continued to support the Confederation Congress while others did not. Drawing upon Mancur Olson's The Logic of Collective Action (1965), Dougherty develops a theory of joint product, that states would not pay their requisitions to the Congress unless they saw, jointly, an immediate, private benefit. Dougherty's formulas also led him to an understanding that reform of the Articles of Confederation was doomed to failure. While his theory of joint product suggested that minor changes might be plausible, the structure of the articles prevented easy change and played into the hands of the consolidationists—the Federalists—by bringing about a new instrument of government. . . .

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