IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/now/jnlrbe/105.00000134.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Martyrdom and Rebellious Collective Action

Author

Listed:
  • Vladimir V. Maltsev

Abstract

The paper analyses the role of martyrdom superstition in fostering rebellious collective action. Rebellions are plagued with problems of free riding, as the benefits of this activity are small, while the costs are high. I argue, however, that a religious society may rationally use the martyrdom superstition to incentivize rebellion. Martyrs gain utility from suffering, which lowers their private costs in case a rebellion does not succeed. If the spiritual benefits from martyrdom are sufficiently high and the costs of failed rebellion are not infinite, then the expected value of rebelling will be higher than the expected value of non-participation. I apply these insights to a radical splinter of the Canadian Doukhobor sect called the Sons of Freedom. Through martyrdom, the anarchic group rebelled against the Canadian government for nearly 80 years, despite their small numbers and low odds of success.

Suggested Citation

  • Vladimir V. Maltsev, 2021. "Martyrdom and Rebellious Collective Action," Review of Behavioral Economics, now publishers, vol. 8(2), pages 111-124, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:now:jnlrbe:105.00000134
    DOI: 10.1561/105.00000134
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1561/105.00000134
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1561/105.00000134?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Gershman, Boris & Mumladze, Tinatin, 2024. "Headhunting and warfare in Austronesia: A phylogenetic comparative analysis," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 220(C), pages 768-791.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Anarchy; superstition; martyrdom; Doukhobors; Sons of Freedom; Russia; Canada;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D01 - Microeconomics - - General - - - Microeconomic Behavior: Underlying Principles
    • N42 - Economic History - - Government, War, Law, International Relations, and Regulation - - - U.S.; Canada: 1913-
    • P49 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Other Economic Systems - - - Other
    • Z12 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Religion

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:now:jnlrbe:105.00000134. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Lucy Wiseman (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nowpublishers.com/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.