Tragedy of the commons

Prisoners dilemma

people might not cooperate even if its in their best interest to

Hardin’s ideas

the environment should be controlled by the government or private property
makes commons into non-commons

Institutions

strong norms lead to constrained use of natural resources

Successful commons management

Boundaries, proportionality, collective choice, monitoring, sanctions, autonomy

Problems with the solutions to the ToC

gender - some women aren’t allowed to own lands = no access to resources
all commons can be influenced by income, race, social differences of power

What does E.Ostrom do?

Re-assess Hardins model and argues for self-organized institutions, conditions favoring sustainable local common pool resource management

Ostroms rebuttle

1.humans rely on reputation, trust, and community to solve problems
2.ToC is real but not inevitable, people use self-organizing rules
3.local communities should be the governance

Characteristics of common-pool resources & solutions

1. non-excludable

2. Subtractability (exploitation reduces the resources for others)
   solutions: restrict access & create incentives & assign rights

4 property rights system

open access, group property, individual property, government property

(L) the commons must be

non-excludable & rivalrous or subtractable

(L) examples of common property resources

fisheries, water resources

(L) Hardin

self-interested individuals will destroy the commons bc everyone is selfish
solutions: gov’t control, privitization

(L) Ostrom beleifs of CPR

institutions (rules, norms) for governing CPR because they are the closest to the resource

(L) Ostroms rules

1.Boundaries - boundaries of the resources are clearly defined
2.Monitoring - monitoring members behaviors
3.Sanctions - punishment used on violators
4.Conflict resolution - community members have ways of resolving conflict
With climate change every rule breaks down

(L) collective choice

most individuals affected by these rules can participate in modifying the rules

(L) Autonomy

the rights of community members to devise their own rules is respected by other authorities