| Popis: |
The Tragedy of the Commons is a common way to describe strategic interactions between gain-maximizing rational actors when faced with choices about consuming commonly held public goods. In the absence of a state authority or private property rights, the phrase and its accompanying theory posit that self-interested actors will invariably deplete commonly held resources when allowed to control access to them. This essay will formalize the tragedy of the commons as a prisoner’s dilemma and show how the prisoners dilemma can be used to represent the over-use of commonly-held resources (while also modifying the prisoner's dilemma game to allow for incomplete information and state enforcement). By suggesting alternative analytical representations of the dilemma faced by actors in the commons, and exploring empirical cases of effective commons management systems enacted by the same communities that consume the common resource, this essay will show that that over-use (to the point of depletion) of a commons is not the inevitable outcome of individuals and communities governing the resources they use. Ultimately, the destiny of the commons is not unambiguously tragic. |
