Browsing by Author "Wade, Robert"

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The Management of Common Property Resources: Collective Action as an Alternative to Privatization or State Regulation
(1986) Wade, Robert
"When will villagers come together to supply themselves with goods and services that they all need but could not provide for themselves individually? In what circumstances will those who face a potential 'tragedy of the commons' be able to organize a system of rules by which the tragedy is averted? Can locally-based collective action be a viable way to manage common property resources? Many writers on collective action and common property are sweepingly pessimistic about the ability of the people who face problems of common property resources to organize sustainable patterns of use for themselves. Some are inclined to favor privatization of the commons as the only viable solution; others, the imposition of state regulation. This paper shows, with reference to Prisoners' Dilemma, Garett Hardin's 'tragedy of the commons', and Mancur Olson's 'logic of collective action', that the analytical basis for this pessimism is weak, in many situations of village-based common property resource use. There can thus be no general presumption that the collective action route to common property resource management will fail, any more than there can be a general presumption that it will work. The paper suggests a number of factors to do with characteristics of the resources, the user group, and group-state relations, on which the chances of success depend."
The Role of Government in Overcoming Market Failure; Taiwan, South Korea and Japan
(1985) Wade, Robert
"My argument is that the governments of Taiwan, South Korea and Japan have an unusually well developed capacity for selective intervention; and that this capacity rests upon (a) a powerful set of policy instruments, and (b) a certain kind of organization of the state, and of its links with other major economic institutions in the society. The East Asian three show striking similarities with respect to both instruments and institutions. They also, of course, show striking similarities with respect to (c) superior economic performance—-notably with respect to rapid restructuring of the economy towards higher technology production. The question is: what are the causal connections between (a), (b), and (c)?"
Trust as a Factor in Canal Performance: Organizational and Technological Conditions
(1985) Wade, Robert
"The performance of canal Irrigation systems depends, in part, on trust by farmers in the good faith and abilities of irrigation officials. In India, this trust is typically lacking; there is, instead, a 'syndrome of anarchy' under the canals, in which farmers lack the confidence that if they refrain from taking water out of turn they will get water on time, and official s lack confidence that if they work conscientiously to get the water on 'time, farmers will refrain from rule-breaking. To break the syndrome, changes need to be made in the relationship between 0 & M and construction; in the source of the 0 & M budget; and in the geographical scope of the 0 & M organization. The East Asian Irrigation Associations provide an example of the direction in which institutional changes might sensibly be made. Changes In physical design can also help; particularly the punctuation of the hydraulic system at a point within the ken of farmers."
What is the Right Form of Irrigation Organization?
(1986) Wade, Robert
"At least one leading practitioner of organizational design has come, like myself, to the conclusion that organizaton theory does not have much to offer on the question of appropriate design. William Smith, who in 1980 wrote a long paper called 'The design of organizations for rural development—-a progress report', which set out a very abstract framework for that purpose, has in the intervening years come to the conclusion that no generalizations are possible about appropriate organizational arrangements. The only plausible generalizations are those to do with the process by which an appropriate form of organization may be discovered for each unique case. But that is to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Smith's generalist method seems to rule out drawing upon generalizations about experience with different forms of organization elsewhere, as well as (such as credit, fertilizer, agricultural extension). Others at the other extreme say that it should be a single-purpose agency, concerned only with the supply of water and maintenance of the water supply facilities. We could call these two camps the 'integrationists' on the one hand, and the 'specializationists' on the other. I shall discuss these issues of horizontal organization first, and come back later to the important but less contested questions of vertical organization."