The Collective Action Spectrum
From isolation to coordination by invitation
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Price Signals
I
Market exchange
§
Contracts
II
Legal agreements
≡
Norms & Customs
III
Social pressure
♥
Shared Identity
IV
Cultural bonds
∞
Trust
V
Voluntary partnership
Individual ActionFull Coordination
Each mechanism builds on the preceding ones
Click a stage to explore its coordination mechanism
Trust does not replace contracts — it enables the coordination that contracts alone cannot achieve.
Higher coordination modes subsume lower ones, adding new capabilities at each level.