Local Commons and Global Interdependence

by Robert O Keohane; Elinor Ostrom

• ISBN13: 9780803979628
• ISBN10: 0803979622
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1995-01-01
• Publisher: Sage Publications

Summary

This volume offers a synthesis of what is known about very large and very small common-pool resources. Individuals using commons at the global or local level may find themselves in a similar situation. At an international level, states cannot appeal to authoritative hierarchies to enforce agreements they make to cooperate with one another. In some small-scale settings, participants may be just as helpless in calling on distant public officials to monitor and enforce their agreements. Scholars have independently discovered self-organizing regimes which rely on implicit or explicit principles, norms, rules and procedures rather than the command and control of a central authority.The contributors discuss the possibilities and dangers of scaling up and scaling down. They explore the impact of the number of actors and the degree of heterogeneity among actors on the likelihood of cooperative behaviour.

Table of Contents

Introduction - Robert O Keohane and Elinor Ostrom

PART ONE: THEORETICAL PUZZLES

The Problem of Scale in Human//Environment Relationships - Oran R Young

The Politics of Scope - Duncan Snidal

Endogenous Actors, Heterogeneity and Institutions

Heterogeneity, Linkage and Commons Problems - Lisa L Martin

PART TWO: EVIDENCE FROM THE LABORATORY

Heterogeneities, Information and Conflict Resolution - Steven Hackett, Dean Dudley and James Walker

Experimental Evidence on Sharing Contracts

PART THREE: EVIDENCE FROM THE FIELD

Constituting Social Capital and Collective Action - Elinor Ostrom

The Conditions for Successful Collective Action - Gary D Libecap

Self-interest and Environmental Management - Kenneth A Oye and James H Maxwell

Heterogeneities at Two Levels - Ronald B Mitchell

State, Non-state Actors and Intentional Oil Pollution