Coalition Enforcement

What it is

A term from Paul Bingham that The Elephant in the Brain uses for enforcement carried out by a group instead of by the person wronged. On this account a rule counts as a norm when third parties will act on it, and acting together makes that cheap enough for them to do.

In effect

In the article on the reverse dominance hierarchy, it names the step that lets many members hold back one who would dominate them, the step the population model reproduced once gossip allowed coalitions against dominant individuals.

What it does not say

It is an account of how restraint can work, not a count of how often groups use it. The population model is a simulation, and the idea does not say that every group acts this way.

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