The purpose of this study is to analyze how university students, who are not members of a political party, experiencing existing selective and collective incentives for involvement in a political party. Furthermore, the study will highlight incentives which could help the political parties to increase their membership. The study is based on seven interviews and the respondents were selected after conducting a survey of students’ political involvement. The interviews were analyzed through the theory of selective and collective incentives.  The study shows that the incentives, both selective and collective, for involvement in a political party in general are weak and that the costs in terms of time, money and education are seen as too high. The respondents have a range of suggestions to increase party involvement, including increased party information, better education, increased financial incentives and a more active membership recruitment. The respondents also highlight some collective incentives such as an increased ideological focus and a greater focus on the political party´s own politics. The collective incentives are harder to achieve though they might be most vital for increased involvement. A common feeling amongst the respondents is that they are inclined to become involved in politics if they feel a change is vital for society.

Co-operatives and housing co-operatives as main consideration of the dissertation are historically and philosophically developed institutions. Co-operative culture, although emerged in Britain during early phases of the industrial revolution, has been adapted by other countries within socialist, social democratic and even communist systems. In the contemporary era, housing co-operatives are still in existence and contribute housing production all over the world in every economic and political system. Institutional development of housing co-operatives in Turkey can be regarded as a process of adapting a Western institution and it shows how contextual differences result in changes in terms of ideology and implementation. In this respect, the thesis aims to evaluate Turkish housing co-operatives by putting forward their contextual differences. Housing co-operatives are non-governmental organizations and produce considerable amount of housing in Turkey. The dissertation regards housing co-operatives as a kind of collective action and discusses underlying factors of success of them with respect to collective action theories. Free riding, group size, critical mass, heterogeneity, network density and selective incentives are the factors obtained from the Theory of Free Rider and the Theory of Critical Mass and discussed regarding the Turkish co-operative development case to be tested via &ldquo / The Housing Co-operatives Interview Survey&rdquo / in istanbul and Ankara. The thesis&rsquo / findings provide that despite there might be expected effects of factors on success of housing co-operatives, these factors might be different due to the fact that they depends on desires of the critical mass / whether to act in favor of collective or individual benefits.

Mancur Olson states that individual, after reasonable evaluation, takes the action of free ride. The main factor of free ride lies in the goal of collective actions --- collective goods. And the non-excludability in collective goods enables consumers to benefit without sharing costs. Based on the framework of Olson¡¦s and Russell Hardin¡¦s theories of reaching the goal of collective actions, along with the theory of political entrepreneurs, this study surveys the collective actions of Tzu-Chi Foundation, in hope of depicting its factors and strategies for overcoming difficulties in collective actions. This study gives an analysis of Tzu-Chi Foundation in terms of collective actions, concluding that its selective incentives are Master Cheng Yen¡¦s unconditional love, cause & effect cycle and pursuit of pop culture. Successful marketing and computerized fund-raise tactics make people more willing to invest time and money in promoting Tzu-Chi Foundation. Few entrepreneurs are willing to bear the costs even without cooperation from other members, as they are satisfied with the collective goods provided by the group, just as Hardin states. Furthermore, one of the solutions to collective actions of free ride is to rely on organization operating by political entrepreneurs. Master Cheng Yen successfully plays the role of entrepreneur leader, adopting strategies like keeping equidistance from each political party, developing constant sense of mission within the organization, exercising mild leadership and management strategies, consolidating the Foundation with religious prospect, recruiting elites and making good use of talents...etc. Multiplied by her female leader impact on Taiwan, these factors combined are the key points of Tzu-Chi Foundation¡¦s success.

While there are numerous examples of research investigating who would protest and why, the research fields of social movements and political participation have not done enough to understand the motivations of women in protest. Nor are there enough studies of the mobilisation of women in anti-regime protest in a post-communist context. This thesis investigates what motivates women in non-democratic settings to participate in protest, despite the elevated costs and risks given the context. It examines Belarus, a protest movement where women have taken on a prevalent role in the protest movement of 2020. The research design is a within-case study using the method of in-depth interviews. I conduct interviews with ten Belarusian female protesters who are found primarily via a snowball sampling technique. The transcribed interviews are analysed using a framework of collective and selective incentives. The study finds that discontent with the government and belief in the movement’s success are significant motivations, while there is not belief that their own participation will enhance the likelihood of success. Results also show that respondents were motivated by the violence used against protesters, a newfound sense of community between Belarusians, solidarity with protesters, the peaceful repertoires in the movement and group belongingness with other women. Taken together, these results deepen our understanding of protests as motivations in themselves and of motivation as a resource, but foremost of why women protest. The results might incentivise more research to be made on women’s role in protest and motivations to join social movements.