Content area
Full Text
ABSTRACT: The tragedy of the commons has been an influential metaphor in the environmental movement, not only referring to the misappropriation of common property resources by private producers, but also incorporating a variety of other issues into the metaphorical commons. Criticisms of the thesis have concentrated on the facts of how humans manage classical common property resources in the real world. Yet the most provocative aspects of the metaphor are associated with its more general usage for resources not usually thought of as manageable common property resources. A full analysis of the tragedy of the commons reveals important political insights into the environmental consequences of capitalism, especially the tendency for externalization of many production costs, suggesting that a more appropriate title for the thesis might be the tragedy of the privately owned sheep.
HEN GARRETT HARDIN ELABORATED HIS THESIS on the tragedy of the commons (Harden, 1968), his metaphor could not have been clearer. Individual shepherds would increase their herds because it made economic sense for them to do so, but the overall population of sheep would eventually exceed the pasture's (the common's) ability to regenerate itself. But the commons, in his intended sense, was not really the big green area in the middle of the town square, but rather the natural resource that was not owned by anyone in particular, and thus a potential target for ruthless overexploitation. His intended message was about overpopulation and the threat of deterioration of any resource not specifically in the hands of some private owner. One of his most often cited quotes was not directly about the commons, but reiterates what was the clear message of his original article.
. . the allocation of rights based on territory must be defended if a ruinous breeding race is to be avoided. It is unlikely that civilization and dignity can survive everywhere; but better in a few places than in none. Fortunate minorities must act as the trustees of a civilization that is threatened by uninformed good intentions.
And who these fortunate minorities are, and why they just happen to be fortunate, we are left to ponder. Criticisms of the whole metaphor have emphasized the fact that it frequently, perhaps usually, does not really work. Ostrum, in her classic...