IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/jothpo/v4y1992i3p247-281.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Success on the Commons

Author

Listed:
  • Margaret A. McKean

Abstract

The notorious `tragedy of the commons' is incorrectly held to be the eventual fate of all resources that are used collectively rather than by individual private owners. This essay reviews several examples around the world of successful collective management of environmental resources - institutional regimes that have operated for decades or even centuries without resulting in degradation of resources. It then explores the features shared by these historically unconnected institutional regimes in order to begin specifying the characteristics of regimes that circumvent tragedy. Successful systems usually have well defined communities of eligible user-managers and clear, easily enforced and environmentally cautious rules to constrain resource use. But they vary greatly in terms of the allocation of the harvested supply of the resource, from hierarchical systems of rights with unequal allocation of the resource to very egalitarian systems that assign equal shares by lottery.

Suggested Citation

  • Margaret A. McKean, 1992. "Success on the Commons," Journal of Theoretical Politics, , vol. 4(3), pages 247-281, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:jothpo:v:4:y:1992:i:3:p:247-281
    DOI: 10.1177/0951692892004003002
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0951692892004003002
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0951692892004003002?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Brunner, Karl & Meltzer, Allan H., 1977. "International organization, national policies and economic development," Carnegie-Rochester Conference Series on Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 6(1), pages 1-16, January.
    2. Daniel W. Bromley & Devendra P. Chapagain, 1984. "The Village Against the Center: Resource Depletion in South Asia," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 66(5), pages 868-873.
    3. Carlisle Ford Runge, 1981. "Common Property Externalities: Isolation, Assurance, and Resource Depletion in a Traditional Grazing Context," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 63(4), pages 595-606.
    4. Berkes, Fikret, 1986. "Local-level management and the commons problem , : A comparative study of Turkish coastal fisheries," Marine Policy, Elsevier, vol. 10(3), pages 215-229, July.
    5. Robert L. Heilbroner, 1975. "the Human Prospect," Challenge, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(2), pages 21-28, May.
    6. Kathryn Norberg, 1988. "Dividing Up the Commons: Institutional Change in Rural France, 1789-1799," Politics & Society, , vol. 16(2-3), pages 265-286, June.
    7. H. S. A. Fox, 1975. "The Chronology of Enclosure and Economic Development in Medieval Devon," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 28(2), pages 181-202, May.
    8. De Vany, Arthur, 1977. "Land reform and agricultural efficiency in Mexico: A general equilibrium analysis," Carnegie-Rochester Conference Series on Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 6(1), pages 123-147, January.
    9. H. Scott Gordon, 1954. "The Economic Theory of a Common-Property Resource: The Fishery," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 62(2), pages 124-124.
    10. Karpoff, Jonathan M, 1987. "Suboptimal Controls in Common Resource Management: The Case of the Fishery," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 95(1), pages 179-194, February.
    11. Edella Schlager & Elinor Ostrom, 1992. "Property-Rights Regimes and Natural Resources: A Conceptual Analysis," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 68(3), pages 249-262.
    12. H. Scott Gordon, 1954. "The Economic Theory of a Common-Property Resource: The Fishery," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Chennat Gopalakrishnan (ed.), Classic Papers in Natural Resource Economics, chapter 9, pages 178-203, Palgrave Macmillan.
    13. repec:bla:ecorec:v:55:y:1979:i:149:p:95-107 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Stefano Fenoaltea, 1988. "Transaction Costs, Whig History, and the Common Fields," Politics & Society, , vol. 16(2-3), pages 171-240, June.
    15. George J. Stigler, 1974. "Free Riders and Collective Action: An Appendix to Theories of Economic Regulation," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 5(2), pages 359-365, Autumn.
    16. JOHN McMILLAN, 1979. "The Free‐Rider Problem: A Survey," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 55(2), pages 95-107, June.
    17. Bromley, D.W. & Cernea, M.M., 1989. "The Management Of Common Property Natural Resources - Some Conceptual And Operational Fallacies," World Bank - Discussion Papers 57, World Bank.
    18. Anthony Scott, 1955. "The Fishery: The Objectives of Sole Ownership," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 63(2), pages 116-116.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jongwook Kim & Joseph T. Mahoney, 2002. "Resource-based and property rights perspectives on value creation: the case of oil field unitization," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 23(4-5), pages 225-245.
    2. Liu, Jing & Qin, Tianbao, 2018. "A Comparative Analysis of Fishing Rights From a Transaction Cost Perspective," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 153(C), pages 89-99.
    3. Elinor Ostrom, 1989. "Microconstitutional Change in Multiconstitutional Political Systems," Rationality and Society, , vol. 1(1), pages 11-50, July.
    4. ’t Sas-Rolfes, Michael & Emslie, Richard, 2024. "African Rhino Conservation and the Interacting Influences of Property, Prices, and Policy," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 220(C).
    5. Smith, Martin D. & Zhang, Junjie & Coleman, Felicia C., 2008. "Econometric modeling of fisheries with complex life histories: Avoiding biological management failures," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 55(3), pages 265-280, May.
    6. Ana María Peredo & Helen M. Haugh & Marek Hudon & Camille Meyer, 2020. "Mapping Concepts and Issues in the Ethics of the Commons: Introduction to the Special Issue," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 166(4), pages 659-672, November.
    7. Homans, Frances R. & Wilen, James E., 1997. "A Model of Regulated Open Access Resource Use," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 1-21, January.
    8. Roy Behnke, 1994. "Natural Resource Management in Pastoral Africa," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 12(1), pages 5-28, March.
    9. Tatiana Intigrinova, 2011. "Property regimes for pastoral resources: discussions, practices and problems," Research Paper Series, Gaidar Institute for Economic Policy, issue 158P.
    10. Bocci, Corinne & Fortmann, Lea & Sohngen, Brent & Milian, Bayron, 2018. "The impact of community forest concessions on income: an analysis of communities in the Maya Biosphere Reserve," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 10-21.
    11. Edwards, Steven F., 2003. "Property rights to multi-attribute fishery resources," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(2-3), pages 309-323, March.
    12. Manuel Pacheco Coelho & José António Filipe & Manuel Alberto Ferreira & Rui Junqueira Lopes, 2011. "Socio-Economics of Portuguese Cod Fisheries: Past, Present and Perspectives for the Future," International Journal of Finance, Insurance and Risk Management, International Journal of Finance, Insurance and Risk Management, vol. 1(3), pages 111-111.
    13. James Rising, 2014. "Creating the Commons: Fisheries and the World Bank," HISTORY OF ECONOMIC THOUGHT AND POLICY, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2014(1), pages 75-95.
    14. Eggert, Håkan, 2006. "Fisheries Economics and 20 years with Marine Resource Economics: A Citation Analysis," Working Papers in Economics 203, University of Gothenburg, Department of Economics.
    15. Thorburn, Craig C., 2000. "Changing Customary Marine Resource Management Practice and Institutions: The Case of Sasi Lola in the Kei Islands, Indonesia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 28(8), pages 1461-1479, August.
    16. McCloskey Deirdre Nansen, 2018. "The Two Movements in Economic Thought, 1700–2000: Empty Economic Boxes Revisited," Man and the Economy, De Gruyter, vol. 5(2), pages 1-20, December.
    17. Kanchanaroek, Yingluk & Termansen, Mette & Quinn, Claire, 2013. "Property rights regimes in complex fishery management systems: A choice experiment application," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 363-373.
    18. Catherine J. Morrison Paul & Ronald G. Felthoven & Marcelo de O. Torres, 2010. "Productive performance in fisheries: modeling, measurement, and management," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 54(3), pages 343-360, July.
    19. Pies, Ingo, 2012. "Optimierung versus Koordinierung: Zur ordonomischen Klärung des wirtschaftsethischen Problems," Discussion Papers 2012-21, Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg, Chair of Economic Ethics.
    20. Behringer, Stefan & Upmann, Thorsten, 2014. "Optimal harvesting of a spatial renewable resource," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 105-120.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:jothpo:v:4:y:1992:i:3:p:247-281. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.