In the domestic sphere you often find that people will put up with genuine inconvenience rather than take the initiative and do something themselves which they feel other people really should be responsible for doing. For example they'll allow rubbish dropped by other people to pile up around their street rather than pick it up, or step carefully around turds left by passing dogs rather than clean them up.

The same kind of thing applies to potholes - obviously it's someone else's responsibility, so the tendency is to endure it almost as a matter of principle.

An individual who picks up the ball and runs, so to speak, tends to be seen as a bit suspect - its almost as if its a matter of asserting a kind of ownership of the territory. Which it is in fact, but you'd want it to be shared ownership and shared responsibility.

At an international and global scale it gets a lot harder and a lot hairier. Experience seems to suggest that its best for the big players to keep out of direct involvement.