[Marxism] The Myth of the Tragedy of the Commons

[Ian Angus]

SOCIALIST VOICE
Marxist Perspectives for the 21st Century
www.socialistvoice.ca

THE MYTH OF THE TRAGEDY OF THE COMMONS

by Ian Angus

Will shared resources always be misused and overused? Is community
ownership of land, forests and fisheries a guaranteed road to ecological
disaster? Is privatization the only way to protect the environment and end
Third World poverty? Most economists and development planners will answer
"yes" -- and for proof they will point to the most influential article ever
written on those important questions.

Since its publication in Science in December 1968, "The Tragedy of the
Commons" has been anthologized in at least 111 books, making it one of the
most-reprinted articles ever to appear in any scientific journal. It is
also one of the most-quoted: a recent Google search found "about 302,000"
results for the phrase "tragedy of the commons."

For 40 years it has been, in the words of a World Bank Discussion Paper,
"the dominant paradigm within which social scientists assess natural
resource issues." (Bromley and Cernea 1989: 6) It has been used time and
again to justify stealing indigenous peoples' lands, privatizing health
care and other social services, giving corporations 'tradable permits' to
pollute the air and water, and much more.

Noted anthropologist Dr. G.N. Appell (1995) writes that the article "has
been embraced as a sacred text by scholars and professionals in the
practice of designing futures for others and imposing their own economic
and environmental rationality on other social systems of which they have
incomplete understanding and knowledge."

Like most sacred texts, "The Tragedy of the Commons" is more often cited
than read. As we will see, although its title sounds authoritative and
scientific, it fell far short of science.

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