Commons, Tragedy of the

The Commons

The commons refers to a set of resources that are used by many people but privately owned by no one. Examples include fisheries, forests, water resources, the atmosphere, and pastures. Usage of the term commons dates to Medieval Europe, where it referred to the meadows that peasants were allowed to live on under the manorial system. The commons or common pool resources possess two important characteristics: (1) exclud-ability—the resource is such that excluding users from access is either extremely costly or physically impossible—and (2) subtractability—exploitation of the resource by one user has negative consequences for the rest of the users by reducing the quantity or quality of the resource.

The Tragedy

In his article, Hardin used the analogy of herdsmen to explain how conditions of the commons will lead to the tragedy of resource decimation. A herdsman grazing livestock in open pasture will seek to maximize his gain, so he will add an additional animal to graze on the field. The animal in turn will deplete the quality and quantity of the pasture resource. The herdsman will receive all the profit from the sale of that piece of livestock. However, the cost of the depletion of the pasture will be shared by all the users, so it will only cost him a small fraction of the profits. There are no incentives for individual users to be protective of the common resource, and “rational” actors will continue to deplete resources for their own gain, ultimately leading to ruin for all.

Hardin emphasized the futility of an appeal to conscience in the management of common resources. He suggested that telling resource users to voluntarily limit their use of resources would place them in a double bind. First, they will be condemned for taking more than their share of resources. However, if they don't take their share, users will still feel condemned for standing by while other users openly exploit the commons. Resource users cannot be expected to limit use on their own because they will always be worried that “free riders” will continue to exploit resources while they refrain from taking their share.

Examples

There are many examples of the tragedy of the commons—situations in which the open access to a common resource has led to its decline. This concept can be presented as the root of many of the major environmental problems that humanity faces. Some of the most prominent examples are in the arena of natural resources.

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