Divergent View

Pessimistic view points

Malthusian theory

the tragedy of commons

malthusian theory core argument

Population grows at a geometric rate

Food supply (subsistence) grows at an arithmetic rate

Inevitably, population will exceed the food supply, leading to a point of crisis (catastrophe). This crisis restores the balance between population and resources.

Positive Checks (increase death rate): Famine, disease, and war. These are misery.

Preventative Checks (decrease birth rate): Moral restraint (e.g., postponing marriage, abstinence). These are vice (except for 'moral restraint').

criticisim and relevance of malthusian theory

Oversimplification: Malthus did not foresee the Industrial Revolution or the vast improvements in agricultural technology 

is focus was on total supply, ignoring the issue of food access and distributio

Neo-Malthusians (e.g., the Club of Rome in the 1970s) apply his core principle to all resources, not just food. They argue that finite resources (oil, minerals, land) place an absolute limit on population and consumption, leading to a collapse if current trends continue.

Boserup's Theory Core Arguments 

forces farmers to adopt more labour-intensive, high-yield farming methods (e.g., irrigation, terracing, better seeds, fertilisers) to get more output from the same land. Population growth is the independent variable, and agricultural change is the dependent variable.

criticism and relevance of boserup

Critics argue that the innovations required might lead to environmental degradation (e.g., soil exhaustion, water pollution) which Boserup admits can happen in fragile environments.

Innovation requires capital, access to credit, education, and stable government. Not all societies can simply "invent" their way out of a crisis if they lack these resources.

The Tragedy of the Commons Core Arguments

A Common-Pool Resource (CPR) that is non-excludable (difficult to stop people from using it) and rivalrous (one person's use reduces the amount available for others). Each individual user of the resource is motivated to maximise their own gain. For a herder on a common pasture, adding one extra animal provides full benefit to them, but the cost (slight overgrazing) is shared by all users.

Inevitable Ruin: Because every rational user makes the same choice, the cumulative impact of these small, self-interested acts is the destruction of the resource for everyone.

The Tragedy of the Commons Solutions and Counter-Arguments

Privatisation: Converting the common resource into private property, giving the owner an incentive to protect and manage it sustainably.

Government Regulation: Imposing external rules, quotas, or taxes (coercion) to limit use (e.g., fishing quotas, pollution fines).

Elinor Ostrom's Counter-Argument: Political scientist Elinor Ostrom won a Nobel Prize for her work arguing that user communities can successfully manage common resources through collective action (e.g., local management rules, monitoring, sanctions), proving that the "tragedy" is not always inevitable.

alternatives to Boserup

Club of Rome

Julian Simons

Club of Rome

hypothesised there will be limits to growth

There will reach a point where the amount of resources available will control the size of the population

Julian Simon

He believed that as resources run out, the price will increase, so therefore people will invest time to make technologies to get it

They will get more of the resource

Find a substitute to the resource

Manage society to get the resource