PSCI 3201 Environmental Policy 101107

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PSCI 3201 Environmental Policy10/11/07

• The commons perspective
• Garrett Hardin and the Tragedy of the
  Commons

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• QUESTIONS UNDERLYING
• POLICY DEBATE
• Ethics What is right/wrong?
• What should we do?
• Commons What is sustainable?
• What can be supported
• over the long term?

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• The Commons
• A commons exists whenever there is a resource
  which is open to all.
• A tragedy of the commons results when all act in
  their own self-interest to use the resource,
  leading to the ultimate destruction of the
  commons.

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• The Logic of the Commons
• The household gains a specific benefit, while the
  costs are shared by all.
• The gain to the household appears large and the
  cost very small.

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• The fallacy in the logic of the commons The
  failure to recognize that all households are
  attempting to do the same thing. Thus, on
  average, one unit of gain for a household
  actually produces a net one unit of cost for each
  household.

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• Why should we expect a tragedy of the commons?
• According to Hardin, humans are primarily
  motivated by self interest and act accordingly.
• Unless controlled, humans will act to use as
  much of the commons as possible to satisfy self
  interests.
• In policy terms, we can expect a tragedy in the
  absence of any automatic mechanism or incentive
  to prevent the overuse and depletion of the
  commonly-held resource.

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• A tragedy of the commons results when the
  following preconditions are true
• there is a lack of restraint on pursuits of
  self-interest and
• the consequences remain as externalities (I dont
  have to pay)

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• Externalities
• When the activity of one person has an
  inadvertent impact on the well-being of another.
• Positive externalities (or external benefits)
• Benefits realized by those who didnt pay for
  them.
• Negative externalities (or external costs)
• Costs borne by those who didnt generate them.
  Byproducts that harm others.

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• Avoiding a Tragedy of the Commons
• Policy solutions need to address one or the other
  precondition
• Lack of restraint restrain individuals to
  prevent damage
• Externalities allow individuals to operate
  unrestrained, and pay for consequences

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• Hardins alternatives for confronting commons
  dilemmas
• Privatize property
• (focus externalities)
• 2. Appeals to conscience
• (focus restraint)
• 3. Mutual coercion
• (focus restraint)

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• Hardins Preferred Solution to Avoiding a
  Tragedy
• Mutual coercion, mutually agreed upon by the
  majority of the people affected.