Co-operative values, institutions and free riding in Australia: can it learn from Canada?

Industrial citizenship implies both rights and responsibilities for citizens. These include the right to participate in collective activity such as bargaining, and the need to behave with responsibility towards fellow members of the collective or group. One of the central problems in co-operative, collective behaviour has been the problem of free riding. This paper will consider co-operative values, free riding and institutional change in the context of Australia, where the incidence of free riding has increased in recent years. It will also examine the contrast with Canada, where the Rand model for dealing with the free rider problem was introduced and briefly provided a model for emulation in Australia. I start by introducing the general context of collectivism and identify where co-operative values (including reciprocity and altruism) and free riding sit in a collectivist framework. I then look at the measurement of free riding and the general pattern of free riding in Australia. Consideration then turns to whether there is Australian evidence of a decline in cooperative values which might promote an increase in free riding, or whether institutional changes are responsible. I then look at how free riding has been dealt with or otherwise in the Canadian and Australian contexts, including some policy options for the future