Here is my recommendation for understanding how the policy world works: read the “Weekend Edition” of the WSJ and skim The Economist. Curious people will quite naturally latch on to interesting and policy relevant articles. A few individuals have an intuitive appreciation of systems. My suggestion will foster their understanding by providing logical […]
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Early in my career I had the immense good fortune to work with Garrett Hardin, a distinguished ecologist. He was an extraordinarily fine and brave gentleman and scholar. Garrett was also sufficiently honest to admit his occasional errors and modify his analysis accordingly. Together, we produced a book that remained in print for nearly 20 […]
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Every society faces the important challenge of meeting its desires without compromising the ability of future generations to meet theirs. Since we care about the well-being of future generations, the question is, How do we best allocate scarce resources over the long term? Here I consider four categories of resources. The first is renewables, such […]
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Those of us working to preserve wildlife habitat and open space will be more successful when we grasp a key principle; all resources, including land, gravitate toward highest valued uses. With agricultural prices nearing historical lows, the pressures forcing farmers and ranchers out of agriculture are increasing. Although some people may object to this claim, […]
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Second Edition, Indiana University Press, 1998, John A. Baden, contributing author and editor (with Douglas S. Noonan). This is a new edition of a pioneering work on the origins, developments, and recent innovations in the debate on managing commonly-owned lands and resources. It includes both new and updated essays which focus on alternate institutional approaches […]
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The first lesson of international relations is that democracies don’t go to war with on another. In his 1994 State of the Union addresss, President Clinton said that no two democracies have ever warred with each other. The conventional wisdom is that world peace can be achieved through universal democracy. Unfortunately, this is not quite […]
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Public policy failures can take their toll on economic efficiency, ecological integrity, and even human lives. These failures are endemic to fisheries commons the world over. Recent issues of Field and Stream, Scientific American, and National Geographic all featured stories about the dire straits of our fisheries. Now the Bering Sea brings tragic news of […]
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Ocean fisheries exemplify “common-pool resources”. It’s difficult, if not impossible, to fence in or brand marine fish. Their freedom is bound by the forces of nature. These fish are fugitive resources. Their migration ignores political, social, and legal boundaries. This often leads to great tragedy. Fisheries demonstrate the classic “tragedy of the commons”. They are […]
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“THE Tragedy of the Commons” is the best known article on ecology. It was printed in Science magazine in 1968 and has been reprinted hundreds of times in dozens of fields ranging from anthropology to zoology. Its essential message is profound yet simple: If a valuable resource is open to all, if it is common […]
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“THE Tragedy of the Commons” appeared in Science magazine in 1968. Though written by an ecologist, Garret Hardin, the article is a classic of political economy. Understanding the logic of this article should be a requirement of running for political office. It explains how and why we should expect waste when biological resources such as […]
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