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Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action
Abstract
The governance of natural resources used by many individuals in common is an issue of increasing concern to policy analysts. Both state control and privatization of resources have been advocated, but neither the state nor the market have been uniformly successful in solving common pool resource problems. After critiquing the foundations of policy analysis as applied to natural resources, Elinor Ostrom here provides a unique body of empirical data to explore conditions under which common pool resource problems have been satisfactorily or unsatisfactorily solved. Dr Ostrom uses institutional analysis to explore different ways - both successful and unsuccessful - of governing the commons. In contrast to the proposition of the 'tragedy of the commons' argument, common pool problems sometimes are solved by voluntary organizations rather than by a coercive state. Among the cases considered are communal tenure in meadows and forests, irrigation communities and other water rights, and fisheries.
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“These innovations exemplify what Ostrom (2015) terms “governance design principles”/; institutional arrangements that enable sustainable citizen engagement beyond individual leadership.”
From Transcending Boundaries: Sushma Swaraj and the Multidimensional Paradigm of Women's Empowerment in Political Leadership (2025) · cites this paper as Ostrom (2015)
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“This is the approach adopted in conservation biology, where crises observed across multiple contexts (e.g., ecosystem collapse, mismanaged commons) lead to an understanding of multiscaled dynamics yielding solutions that can be tailored to given sociological and ecological contexts (8, 47, 64).”
From Stewardship of global collective behavior (2021) · cites this paper as [47]
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Metadata
- Authors
- Ostrom, E.
- Venue
- Cambridge University Press eBooks
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press
- Published
- 2015-09-23
- OpenAlex
- W4253773297
- Cited by
- 965
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 127 · 2025: 141 · 2024: 101 · 2023: 85 · 2022: 80 · 2021: 117 · 2020: 95 · 2019: 61 · 2018: 87 · 2017: 43 · 2016: 11 · 2015: 5
- FWCI
- 52.59
- Type
- book
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Cambridge University Press eBooks (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Economic Theory and Institutions
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Conservation, Biodiversity, and Resource Management
- Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Experimental Behavioral Economics Studies
- Keywords
- commons governance, common-pool resources, tragedy of the commons, institutional analysis, state control of natural resources, privatization, voluntary organizations, meadows, forests, irrigation communities, water rights, fisheries, natural resource policy
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