This cogently argued book deals with the problem of how people manage commonly held property where discrete subdivision into individual ownership or management is not practical, or not desired. Examples of such situations are fishing grounds, joint pasturage, rotational usufruct, and productive forests, but there are numerous others. Much nonsense has been written on this subject, and Ostrom clears the air with a disciplined analysis. Unlike most of the people who have pontificated on the topic, she has studied specific, real-life instances in great detail. She begins by describing how various dubious and unproven notions, such as Garrett Hardin’s “Tragedy of the Commons” [see above], have been used to advance a variety of ideological agendas, almost always ending up justifying massive interference and expropriation by the big and powerful. For example, the “Tragedy of the Commons” gimmick was used by bureaucratic centralists to justify state control of all resources, and by Neoconservatives to justify “privatization” (the seizure and handing over of locally owned resources to vast, baronial corporate bodies). I live in a country that was populated, in great numbers, by immigrant Scottish highlanders who had been driven off their own lands by Enclosure, an early incarnation of this kind of claptrap, so it’s easy for me to appreciate her insights. Ostrom points out that there is no evidence that there is any necessary “tragedy of the commons”, that the world abounds with examples of effective collaborative control of resources on the local level, and that the arguments presented have little basis in experience, are full of self-contradiction and overlook fundamental economic facts. The book is an important intellectual resource for all of us involved in the battle against Big Power.
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