My theoretical approach borrows from anthropology, political science, and political economy. I refine models of collective action by including the need for leaders to overcome free-riding, the effects of scale as a constraint and the centrality of concern with bargaining power. The social and political institutions in small communities constrain leaders whose higher profiles pose a threat to the relative standing of other community members. Distrust of leaders, combined with cheap information in small communities, provide a fertile environment and accessible mechanisms for leveling leaders through gossip, shunning and economic boycotting. Concern with relative status in small communities as a way to preserve bargaining power effectively limits collective action.
Leaders are unable to maneuver in the ways that are essential to bring about planned change.
I have applied this theoretical approach more generally to leaders and leveling in states and firms in collaborative work with a colleague in the business school. My theoretical focus is reflected in my teaching as a conflict in human society between individual and collective interests. My introductory cultural anthropology courses as well as those I teach on diversity in U.S. society deal with this conflict by analyzing individual action in the context of social and political institutions. Miller, Gary and H. Kathleen Cook 1994 Leveling and Leadership in States and Firms. University of Maryland, NSF Conference.