Political Theory

One of my favorite papers on political theory and/or economics wasn't written by a political theorist or an economist. It was written by a biologist. In 1968 Garrett Hardin wrote one of the most famous papers ever to be published in the journal, Science. He titled it, "The Tragedy of the Commons".

Garrett Hardin’s dilemma of the “tragedy of the commons” states that multiple individuals who act in their own interest will tend to destroy a common resource.

The scenario by which Hardin’s theory is often explained is that of cow herders sharing a common, finite parcel of grazing land. The grazing pasture will support only a limited number of cows.

But, human nature being what it is, individual herders will tend to put as many of their own cows as possible into the common grazing pasture. The benefit of taking more than one’s share is enjoyed exclusively by the individual herder while the cost (being the gradual degradation of the grazing land) is spread amongst all the herders.

In a reverse way, the tragedy of the commons reappears in problems of pollution. Here it is not a question of taking something out of the commons, but of putting something in — human waste, or industrial waste, and farm wastes into water; noxious and dangerous fumes into the air; and distracting and unpleasant property uses. The calculations of utility are much the same as before. The rational man finds that his share of the cost of the wastes he discharges into the commons is less than the cost of purifying his wastes before releasing them. Since this is true for everyone, we are locked into a system of "fouling our own nest," so long as we behave only as independent, rational, free enterprisers. (http://www.constitution.org/cmt/tragcomm.htm)

In a nutshell, one or more persons acting selfishly will eventually ruin the resource for everyone.

Hardin’s theory can, of course, be readily applied to many aspects of modern life. As individuals, our actions – excess consumption of fossil fuels, overuse of pesticides, cattlemen leasing national land on the Western ranges – provide individual benefits while harming the population as a whole by degrading shared resources.

I recommend reading the article.