| Abstract: |
When will villagers come together to supply themselves withgoods and services that they all need but could not providefor themselves individually? Can locally based collective actionbe a viable way to manage common property resources? Many writerson collective action and common property are pressimistic aboutthe ability of people who face problems with common propertyresources to organize sustainable patterns of use for themselves.Some writers favour privatization of the commons as the onlyviable solution; others, the imposition of state regulation.This article shows, with reference to Mancur Olson's "logicof collective action, " that the analytical basis for this pessimismis weak for the village-based use of common property resources.There can thus be no general presumption that collective actionwill fail in the management of common property resources, anymore than there can be a general presumption that it will work.The article suggests that the chances of success through collectiveaction depend on the characteristics of the resources, the usergroup, and group-state relations. |
