POL 32700 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Common-Pool Resource
10 Jan 2020
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Lecture 10:
1. What are common-pool resources? Examples?
a. Type of good consisting of a natural or human made resource system whose size
or characteristic makes it costly but not impossible to exclude potential
beneficiaries from obtaining benefits.
b. Rival in consumption: One person’s use subtracts in quantity units available.
c. Generate finite quantities of resource units.
d. Examples: Fish, trees, grass, ocean.
2. Know the difference between Hardin’s commons and the common pool resources Ostrom
is referring to.
a. Ostrom states Hardin is referring to open access resources, which are unregulated.
Ostrom states that if CPR’s are regulated, sustainability is possible.
3. How does Ostrom define “design principles” and what design principles characterize a
common pool resource?
1. Define clear group boundaries.
2. Link rules governing the provision common goods to local conditions.
3. Those affected by the rules must be able to participate in modifying the rules.
4. Use an effective participatory monitoring system.
5. Sanction rule violators with graduated penalties.
6. Disputes ought to be resolved via low-cost accessible mechanisms.
7. Outside authorities must respect the rule making rights of community members.
8. For sufficiently large CPRs, nested organizational design is preferred with
small CPR's constituting the lowest level.
4. Specific to your section of the Governing the Commons reading:
a. What is your case study about?
i. Japan
b. What is the common-pool resource?
i. Forest products
c. Who has the rights to the resource and how are those rights determined?
Document Summary
Japan: what is the common-pool resource? i. Forest products: who has the rights to the resource and how are those rights determined? i. Basis of political rights differed from village to village. Based on cultivation rights in land, taxes, or ownership rights. In some, almost all households had political rights and rights to use of common. Others had more narrow rights: what does the organizational structure look like? i. Ownership of uncultivated lands near a village went from imperial court to other villages. Ownership of large estates employed agents in various villages and authorized agents to regulate access to uncultivated lands. Lands held in common needed management to serve long-term interests of peasants: what type of operational rules govern this resource? i. Many detailed authorities regarding how much each household can harvest common good. Villagers required to perform collective work for enhancing and maintaining yield of commons. Villagers required to do its own monitoring, most of them had detectives.
