One Thing or Many?
(9)
Actions and institutions have no existence independent of ideas. Institutions represent the
embodiment of ideas; and institutionalized ideas give rise to individual action. The task of social
theory is, therefore, one of understanding ideas – of interpreting the common knowledge and
norms that inform the actions of individuals and groups.
Structuralists do not accept the primary explanatory role of either ideas or interests. Both of
these are assumed by them to be the products of institutions (state, religion, class, etc.), which
impose severe limits on individual choice. At its extreme, the structuralist view would have
institutional conditions forcing a single, inexorable decision upon individuals: structures
determine, individuals do not decide.
5
In the next three sections, theories of collective action corresponding to the rationalist,
structuralist and culturalist strands are reviewed in turn to examine whether any of these theories
provides any support for level jumping and issue-area spread. Conclusions generated while
considering each strand of theory individually are brought together and examined at the end,
where expectations regarding fully fungible social capital are evaluated against two contending
viewpoints. These two separate viewpoints, discussed later in more detail, pronounce,
respectively, in favor of
(a) no fungibility: different kinds of social capital characterize different issue-areas and
different levels of aggregation; and
(b) limited fungibility: social capital is potentially productive across diverse levels and issue
areas, but in each separate arena different transmission mechanisms (or agents) are
required alongside high social capital.
Convention