ABSTRACT
The “tragedy of the commons” is a social dilemma arising from a situation in which members of a group make independent rational decisions that lead to the depletion of a resource, even though this will eventually result in a welfare loss for every group member. Garrett Hardin’s example of a social dilemma can be applied to various common pool resources such as fisheries or forests, as well as to the problem of maintaining and contributing to global public goods such as clean air. The main criticism of Hardin’s argumentation refers to equating the commons with a situation of open access management. Open access describes a management system where no property rights are assigned and no institutions regulate relations between users. Hardin’s misinterpretation led to the conclusion that all commons under scarcity will inevitably be overused unless the state controls resource use or private property rights are assigned to them.
