The Commons: Revisiting the Tragedy

Adam Smith, the famous economist, remarked that in a free market, an individual pursuing his own self-interest also tends to promote the good of the society. He called this principle “invisible hand” and it is a widely accepted paradigm by our generation.

However, this commentary by Adam Smith does not hold true for “the commons” – resources such as air, land, water, and other natural resources shared by multiple groups or nations.

Tragedy of the commons

Garrett Hardin, another economist, recognized this conflict among groups over shared resources and put forth the discussion in what is now a classic paper “The Tragedy of the Commons” (Science, Dec. 1968, pp 1243). Garrett explained the tragedy using the example of a pasture as the “common” shared by herdsmen.

In order to increase income, each herdsman has an incentive to increase the number of animals in his herd, and will try to add animals to his herd. Unfortunately, a herdsman is likely to ignore the fact that the pasture will eventually become home to more animals than it can support, leading to disastrous results.

While Hardin’s “Tragedy” is an interesting philosophical response to Adam Smith, it is worthwhile to consider the dynamics and practical implications of Hardin’s hypothetical. 

Cycle for Tragedy

I suggest that it is most appropriate to view Hardin’s model as a cyclical phenomenon as discussed below. When cattle are first introduced into the pasture, there is initially a period of “plenty” where cattle thrive, the herdsmen’s fortunes increase, and each herdsman adds more cattle to his herd. However, at some point the number of cattle in the pasture will exceed the ability of the pasture to sustain them (“disaster point”), and some of the cattle will die of starvation. The system has entered a period of tragedy. It is possible to envision a natural equilibrium following the tragedy.

Eventually, the number of surviving cattle is reduced to a point that they can again be sustained by the pasture (“recovery point”). Hopefully, the herdsmen have learned the lesson.

Intervention

From this cyclical view of Hardin tragedy it is obvious that the tragedy is unavoidable. While one might think that planting the pasture with a more prolific and nutritious species of grass is a reasonable policy, the effect is simply to lengthen the cycle and delay entry into the tragedy phase. Similarly, a sudden invasion of grass-eating rabbits would simply shorten the time to system failure. 

This cyclical phenomenon appears repeatedly in issues such as world energy, climate change, atmospheric pollution, and water rights. Like Hardin’s hypothetical, the tragedy of the commons is a problem of population growth in the face of limited resources. 

In global issues like these, the question to consider is not how to avoid the tragedy, but how to minimize the repercussions of the tragedy. 

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