war. Indeed, one consequence of the end of Soviet domination of Eastern
Europe has been the series of conflicts in the former Yugoslavia, making the
end of the cold war more dangerous than the cold war itself usually was. What
has happened is that the natural and inevitable conflicts in such a complex
continent, ones that were frozen by the artificial ‘East–West’ cold war, have
returned, and Europe has become as unstable as at any time since 1914. The
cold war had two, contradictory, effects: it paralysed international relations
outside of Europe so that regional conflicts became mere instances of a
European conflict and were artificially heightened; but at the same time it
did impose an order and stability in Europe itself.
Collective Goods
A collective good is one which, if it is to be provided for anyone in a society (or
indeed in any institution), has to be provided for every member; it cannot be
restricted to a given group, even if members of that group are the only ones
who pay for it. The benefits of military defence, for example, could hardly be
restricted to citizens willing to pay a special defence tax; and, similarly, clean air
programmes give protection against pollution to everyone, not only those who
have voted for them. Some collective goods could, in principle, be selective. In
the 19th century, for example, London fire brigades were private companies
which would put out fires only in premises displaying a sign showing that fees
due had been paid. The growth of private security companies in Western cities
is, in a sense, the private and therefore selective provision of what would
normally be seen as a public good. When the state provides the services,
however, it becomes impossible to be selective in this way. Those uninsured
against fire present too much of a risk to others not to be looked after, just as
the general need to prevent crime makes it undesirable to arrest burglars of
some, but not all, premises. At a lower institutional level,trade unionshave
always recognized that the wage rises they secure will be enjoyed by all the
workers in the industry concerned, and not just by members of the trade
union; this is, indeed, the justification offered for the closed shop—that
without one, some workers will get the benefit of union action without
themselves having to incur the risks associated with some union activities,
and without having to pay union subscriptions.
Collective goods are important because they come as near as possible to
being genuine examples of thecommon goodor thepublic interest. They
also involve a paradox that has long interested political theorists and econo-
mists, and has some real political relevance. It would appear that if a policy is in
someone’s interest, it must also be in their interest to fight for it, or to pay their
share of the cost of getting it. Yet it can easily be demonstrated that this is by no
means always so. If some people are in a position to procure a common good,
Collective Goods