Abstract
Agents who are under a collective obligation have derivative individual obligations to establish and promote the collective endeavour. They may even permissibly use force to get other agents to comply. They can be jointly blameworthy in case of collective defection. For collective moral action problems with strict joint necessity, the number of agents available to address the problem equals the number of agents minimally necessary to address it. Wide joint necessity obtains where the number of available agents exceeds the minimally necessary number of contributors, and most large-scale collective action cases are wide joint-necessity scenarios. Importantly, collective obligations give rise to individual contributory obligations for all agents in the respective group, even for those who need not (and also for those who must not) take action.