Addressing misperceptions of Governing the Commons

Abstract

Nobel Laureate in Economic Sciences Elinor Ostrom s authoritative book Governing the Commons , published in 1990, and almost every other text she has published on the subject of the commons, strongly criticized Garrett Hardin s much-cited 1968 Science article “The Tragedy of the Commons.” Hardin s “tragedy” refers metaphorically to the eventual destruction of a commons as a result of collective overuse. Hardin claimed that statist solutions and privatization provisions are the only two policy means for addressing the tragedy. Ostrom explored user self-governance as a third alternative to avert the tragedy. Ostrom s exploration and her critical stance, however, have caused the misperception of her work as anti-Hardin, anti-tragedy, or more specifically, anti-statist and anti-privatization. This paper argues that despite Ostrom s clear criticism of Hardin s claim and her regard for user self-governance or community-based management, her work was not anti-statist or anti-privatization.