Elinor Ostrom and the tragedy of the commons that wasn't

How I got here

Started with

Is the tragedy of the commons actually inevitable?

Ended at

Water Tribunal of the plain of Valencia

The Trail

1. “tragedy of the commons criticism” (google.com)
2. Tragedy of the commons (en.wikipedia.org)
3. Garrett Hardin (en.wikipedia.org)
4. Elinor Ostrom (en.wikipedia.org)

   first woman to win the economics Nobel, in 2009

5. Common-pool resource (en.wikipedia.org)
6. Water Tribunal of the plain of Valencia (en.wikipedia.org)

   an irrigation court that meets outside the cathedral every Thursday

What I came away with

Hardin's 1968 essay made it sound like shared resources always get wrecked unless they're privatized or run by a government. Ostrom found communities that had managed pastures, fisheries and irrigation for centuries without either. The ones that last tend to have clear boundaries, rules the users can change themselves, monitoring by the users, and graduated punishments for cheaters.

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