Carlsson, Lars. 1995. "To Keep Away from the Leviathan; The Case of the Swedish Common Forests." Presented at "Reinventing the Commons," the fifth annual conference of the International Association for the Study of Common Property, Bodoe, Norway, May 24-28, 1995.

Abstract

"The aim of this paper is to illustrate and discuss the current situation of the Swedish common forests. With reference to Giddens' (1984) theory of structuration and Kiser and Ostrom's (1982) meta-theoretical framework the commons are analyzed. It is shown that, even though the commons have survived for more than one hundred years and even though their existence is ultimately secured by the State, they have difficulties in handling the entrenchment of the principles of the democratic State. This observation gives rise to the question of whether it is possible to identify the relevant constitution governing the commons, and whether it is relevant to argue that the constitution decides collective and operational rules at a lower level in the institutional hierarchy. Finally it is concluded that, despite the fact that the State (the Leviathan) guarantees the existence of the commons, one of their means of survival is to keep away from the State."