Social scientists have long recognized that solidarity is essential for such phenomena as social order, class, and ethnic consciousness, and the provision of collective goods. In presenting a new general theory of group solidarity, Michael Hechter here contends that it is indeed possible to build a theory of solidarity based on the action of rational individuals and in doing so he goes beyond the timeworn disciplinary boundaries separating the various social sciences.

Michael Hechter is Professor of Sociology at the University of Arizona.

"An important work in contemporary theory and essential reading for all of those who are interested in developing a general theory of human social organization. . . . Principles of Group Solidarity is the most provocative use of rational choice assumptions in theoretical sociology."—Jonathan H. Turner, Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science

"[Principles of Group Solidarity ] will be a great help in reducing the gap between Public Choice and economics on the one hand and sociology on the other. . . . Hechter emphatically is . . . a perceptive sociologist."—Gordon Tullock, Public Choice

"A remarkably new departure in sociology [that] is likely to bring new life into the whole discipline."—William H. Riker, University of Rochester