Hardin and Ostrom on the Commons

Q1. Garrett Hardin's 'Tragedy of the Commons' argument holds that shared resources will inevitably be depleted because:

1. Communities lack the technical knowledge to manage complex natural systems
2. Each user gains the full benefit of consumption but shares the cost of depletion, making maximum consumption individually rational
3. Shared resources are always underfunded relative to privately owned resources
4. The state cannot effectively monitor the use of resources spread across large areas

Q2. Elinor Ostrom's 1990 work challenged Hardin's argument by demonstrating that:

1. Most communities are not rationally self-interested and prefer cooperation instinctively
2. State ownership of common resources is always superior to community management
3. Many communities had successfully managed common resources for centuries through locally developed rules and sanctions
4. The tragedy of the commons only applies to fisheries, not to other types of common resources

Q3. According to Ostrom, when does the tragedy of the commons actually occur?

1. Whenever a resource is shared between more than a certain number of users
2. When there is an institutional failure — when communities lack the autonomy or capacity to develop and enforce their own rules
3. Only when the resource in question is a finite natural resource
4. When governments fail to privatise resources before they are over-exploited

Q4. Hardin's argument is described in the passage as having provided 'intellectual justification for the privatisation of common resources.' This suggests that:

1. Hardin was employed by private interests who wanted to acquire common land
2. His theoretical argument was used to support policy decisions that transferred commons into private ownership
3. Privatisation of commons was already occurring and Hardin's work had no independent influence
4. Academic papers are routinely co-opted by political interests to justify predetermined policies

Q5. What is the 'real tragedy' that Ostrom suggests may result from privatisation and state control of commons?

1. That private owners will over-exploit resources even faster than communities would
2. That communities will lose the motivation to engage in collective action
3. That the sophisticated community-managed arrangements that sustainably governed commons for centuries will be destroyed
4. That the state will lack the revenue to compensate communities for the loss of their common resources

Q6. The passage describes Hardin's argument as based on 'a faulty empirical premise.' The faulty premise is:

1. That individual users are rational actors who maximise their own benefit
2. That shared resources are always eventually depleted, when in fact many communities have managed them sustainably
3. That the cost of depletion is shared equally among all users
4. That privatisation is a reliable solution to over-exploitation of natural resources