Jack Murphy

Mr. Shirk

International Relations

11 November 2013

Blog #5: Tragedy of the Commons

            The tragedy of the commons is a theory created by Garret Hardin that essentially says that people will use common goods as much as they can to benefit themselves, not caring about depletion or ruining the common good. Common goods include oceans, the atmosphere, land, and other goods that are shared and free to anybody to use. Hardin also states this idea that the tragedy of the commons has been around for a long time now. Susan J. Buck however disagrees with Hardin for a few reasons. Buck believes Hardin’s definition of the commons is wrong, as well as his history of the commons, and how the commons were and should be run. While Buck does give some solid evidence though, I agree more with Hardin’s point of view on the commons.

            Firstly, Buck states that because of Hardin’s article most people today believe that “the tragedy was a regular occurrence on the common lands of the villages in medieval and post-medieval England” Buck continues to say that this “belief which, despite its wide acceptance as fact, is historically false” (Buck 47). Buck then goes on attempting to prove this by showing that the commons in medieval England were communally regulated. Buck wrote, “the English common was not available to the general public but was only available to certain individuals who owned or were granted the right to use it… and in some cases the number of animals each tenant could pasture were limited, based partly on the recognition of the limited carrying capacity of the land” (Buck 48). The implementation of these rules proves that they were aware and that there was a problem with the tragedy of commons, which goes against Buck’s view. Also, I find it hard to believe that everywhere in medieval England was regulated. For these reason’s I agree with Hardin.

            Buck also discusses the downfall of the commons system and how Hardin’s idea was wrong. Buck wrote that “often the regulations governing the commons were broken, as when greedy farmers took unauthorized animals, or when wealthy landowners or squatters took grazing to which they were not entitled because of lack of agreement among the tenants” (Buck 50). While Buck does not believe there was tragedy of the commons, these examples of what happened are clearly examples of tragedy of the commons. Buck then says that as technology, that only the rich could get, became better there were many people land-grabbing. These two events led to the downfall of the commons system. I though agree with Hardin that it was because of the tragedy of the commons that the common system went away, because of the overgrazing and abuse of the land people found it necessary to own the land. While Buck believes that, “the common in not free and never was free” and that communally regulated commons works, I agree with Hardin’s idea of the tragedy of commons that the commons are and were free and that the only way to fix that is by privatization of land.

Work Cited

Buck, Susan J. "No Tragedy on the Commons." Green Planet Blues: Four Decades of             Global Environmental Politics. By Ken Conca and Geoffrey D. Dabelko. Boulder, CO: Westview, 2010. N. pag. Print.

Hardin, Garrett James. The Tragedy of the Commons. [Washington, D.C.]: American             Association for the Advancement of Science, 1968. Print.