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The Adaptive Governance of the Commons: Understanding Shifts in Modes of Governance in Community Forestry Systems
(2009) van Laerhoven, Frank
"Under what conditions can social-ecological systems be expected to develop sustainably? Social-ecological systems (SESs) - such as for example community forests and their users - have been compared to 'moving targets:' Due to the interactions and interdependence between the systems' components, SESs are characterized by change, change that can often not be anticipated in terms of intensity and direction. Sustainability is therefore not a steady-state equilibrium that can be developed towards to. I argue that the long-enduring success of community forest systems - success defined in terms of forests not degrading and its users staying happy - is intimately related to a user group's ability to adapt its mode of governance, when confronting change. I hold that forest users that engage in experimentation, learn from experience and are able to adapt to change are more likely to avoid forest degradation or social disintegration. In this research, I focus on the conditions that are expected to make this happen. The particular social-ecological systems that I propose to look at, involve a total of fifty community forestry systems in Guatemala, Honduras, Bolivia, and Mexico, respectively. I line up the following variables to explain variation in community forestry systems - ability to develop sustainably: Diversity in types of actors, social memory, functional redundancy, and trust among actors. These explanatory variables are operationalized through social network analysis metrics - i.e. quantifiable algorithms regarding relevant social network characteristics. I propose to derive the indicators related to the dependent variable (the sustainable development of community forestry systems - the social as well as the ecological side of the picture) from an existing database, compiled by the International Forestry Resources and Institutions (IFRI) research program."
Asymmetric Commons Games in the Laboratory and the Field
(2009) Janssen, Marco A.; Anderies, John M.; Cárdenas, Juan-Camilo
"The emergence of large-scale irrigation systems has puzzled generations of social scientists. Given the challenges of both coordinating activities in a complex network of social interactions and providing public infrastructure, the number of irrigation systems that have evolved without central coordination and have persisted so long is astonishing. Specifically, irrigation systems seem to be vulnerable to selfish rational actors that exploit inherent asymmetries such as simply being the headender or who free ride on the public infrastructure. In this paper we will discuss laboratory and field experiments that address the problem of self-governance in an asymmetric commons dilemma. Laboratory experiments have been performed at Arizona State University, and field experiments have been performed in rural villages in Thailand and Colombia. We formulate an abstract dilemma where participants make both a decision about investment in public infrastructure and how much to extract from the resources generated by that public infrastructure. The impact of inherent asymmetry in irrigation systems on the provision of a public common resource the importance of fairness to generate long term efficiency will be discussed."
Choice in the Therapeutic Treatment of Juvenile Offenders
(2009) Sain, Robert L.
"This paper is an introduction to a clinical (psychotherapeutic) process in which juvenile offenders are given the opportunity to choose self-governance; that is, to develop empathy for others and self-consciousness in making choices in their social worlds. I define such a process as therapeutic to distinguish it from the standard treatment of juvenile offenders that relies on punitive, counter therapeutic treatment and also from 'mental health' approaches that do not confront the offender with his criminal behaviors in the community. These approaches do not deter offenders from continuing on their criminal careers."
Clashing Claims: Conflict and Violence as Unintended Consequences of Tenure Transformation at Enoosupukia, Kenya
(2009) Matter, Scott
"In recent decades, violent conflict has become a metonym for Africa. Conflicts on the continent have manifested in a variety of forms, from civil wars between armies, as in Sudan, to communal violence between citizens, as in the Rwandan genocide. In Kenya, a relatively peaceful and stable country, periodic eruptions of violent conflict have occurred at the nexus of politics, ethnicity, and land. In three distinct periods, prior to independence in 1961, in the era of political liberalization between 1991 and 1997, and again after the most recent general election in 2007, violent clashes have pitted members of different ethnic groups co-resident on contested lands against one another resulting in death, injury, and displacement. But the complexities of local conflicts over land and the motivations of local participants to violence have been overlooked as the role and motivations of the elite have been the focus of attention. In this paper, I use one example of this type of violence, an ethno-political clash over land at Enoosupukia, which took place in October 1993, to examine how tenure insecurity and local conflicts over land rights factor into what has previously been understood as political violence. While recognizing the important part played by the politicization of difference and incitement by key members of the national elite, I argue that violence at Enoosupukia was a product of the propagation of multiple, incompatible institutions of land and resource governance through which competing claims to land have been voiced. The conflicts underlying violence are not merely a result of the uneasy co-existence of traditional notions of land as territory with modern notions of land as commodity, but rather an unintended consequence of state-supported efforts to transform tenure, from 'customary' communal tenure to 'modern' private property."
Cognition and Norms: Toward a Developmental Theory Linking Trust, Reciprocity, and Willingness to Cooperate
(2009) Meyer, Leandro F. F.
"I suggest that the constructivist developmental framework in psychology is of real significance for advancing our understanding on rational action and normative commitment in social action dilemmas. Yet, the recognition of the implications of the developmental perspective to deal with intersubjective conflicts of action has been hindered by often undisputed epistemological presuppositions which deny cognitive content to 'value judgments,' 'moral questions,' and the existential relevance of consciousness and culture. In this paper, I bring the epistemological issue to the fore in order to introduce a proposal for integrating of the developmental point of view into the Institutional Analysis and Development framework. I rely chiefly upon Jurgen Habermas's discourse theory of ethics and his developmental account of the human capacity to coordinate interaction through communicative action. I then suggest how the implications of the resulting integration can be tested in subsequent experimental research. The interested reader is directed to preliminary experimental results reported elsewhere."
Common Pool Resource Principles and Development in Business Responses to Climate Change
(2009) Divecha, Simon
"Organising human activities to sustain global commons resources such as the climate is a critical and pressing challenge. While global collaboration is required to address this issue, some institutions such as specific businesses, are already acting beyond immediate self interest. "Principles seen in successful local governing arrangements, that sustain common resources, may be present in business responses to climate change. However, constructive developmental theory suggests the inherent complexity institutions face, when addressing global commons issues, means such institutions must also be able to hold and reconcile significantly differing 'worldview' perspectives. Consequently, some action at the later operational stages is necessary. This need arises as businesses' engage with a wide spectrum of the community and must collaborate with others who hold markedly different values based on worldview. Climate change may also be a catalyst that enables higher stage approaches -- organisations may shift to respond to the disequilibrating challenges posed by this threat. "This paper presents a preliminary analysis of a major international business and discusses evidence for higher stages of development. Common pool resource principles that may enable successful resource protection are used, along with evidence from interviews, to examine these relationships. From early results, stage development shows promise - it adds an important understanding about successful, modern day, resource protection through voluntary sustainability initiatives."
Conflict over Property Rights in Land in Africa's Liberalized Political Economies
(2009) Boone, Catherine
"Land law reform is high on the agenda of 'second generation' structural adjustment in many, perhaps most, African countries. This turns out to be far more than a matter of simply 'getting the institutions right.' Discussions of land law reform are occurring against the backdrop of on-going debates over land law in many African countries. This paper shows that these debates can engage a complex bundle of political and constitutional issues that complicate efforts to promote the individualization and formalization of land rights in many rural zones, including some of zones of extensively commercialized agriculture. In many African countries, questions of land rights are entangled in debates over the nature of citizenship, local level political authority, and indeed, over the future of the market and of the liberal nation-state itself. The practical salience of the issues is illustrated through reference to land politics in Ghana and Kenya."
Context and Institutions in Irrigation Management: Applicability of Design Principles in Nepal and Thailand
(2009) Bastakoti, Ram Chandra; Shivakoti, Ganesh P.
"In this paper we assess the applicability of design principles (Ostrom, 1990) in irrigation management comparing the similarities and differences from Nepal and Thailand (considering the difference in economic situation and nature of irrigation systems). The information comes from the empirical study of 100 irrigation systems, 50 each from Nepal and Thailand representing major river basins and ecological regions in both countries. The results showed that most of the design principles proposed by Ostrom are applicable in irrigation management in Nepal and Thailand. But the level of applicability of each design principles varied across these two countries. Some of them were fully and mostly applicable in both countries. But others were more applicable only in one country, and rarely applicable in another. It was especially due to the difference in the irrigation infrastructure, besides other reasons. Design principle two 'congruence' and design principle five 'graduate sanctions'; could not fully capture the existing institutional settings. We have proposed some modifications for wider applicability in the specific conditions."
Contracts versus Trust in Water Allocation: Growing & Sharing the Pie in Northeast Brazil
(2009) Pfaff, Alexander; Velez, Maria Alejandra
"We explore the efficiency and equity resulting from allocation of a fixed resource within a bargaining institution, using a modification of the Ultimatum Game with asymmetric productivity and a surplus-sharing step that permits us to explore trust. Sharing allows pie division independent of pie growth. We use generically framed experiments based on water allocation in NE Brazil with 570 participants in Ceara, in Fortaleza (the capitol) or the Jaguaribe (largest agricultural) Valley. These areas are soon to be further connected by a large canal to bring water towards Fortaleza. Our games have 3 steps: [1] proposers request a resource amount; [2] responders accept that split or reject it, yielding a low default payment for all; and [3] if that proposal was accepted, proposers choose whether to send back some of the gains. We consider three institutional designs distinguished by levels of communication. In 'No Communication', a benchmark, and in 'Message' where the proposer sends a non-binding written message about 3rd-step sharing conditional upon acceptance, we see evidence of 2nd-step trust (acceptance of less than the default) that pays off. Yet when that sharing message is a binding 'Contract', efficiency and equity rise."
Contradictions of Consolidation, Puzzles of Resistance: Understanding the Politics of Land Tenure in Post-Conflict Uganda
(2009) Speight, Jeremy
"In Sub-Saharan Africa it has been suggested that government reliance on customary authority at local levels is inimical to democracy. Genuine democracy in Africa must address the undemocratic compulsions customary authorities are able to enforce as a result of their de facto control over land and labour. This paper examines the extent to which guerrilla movements are capable of altering existing patterns of authority and control over land use in Africa. While fighting a civil war, the NRA (National Resistance Army) in Uganda introduced democratic reforms to local government in territories under its control. After the war and in government, the NRM (National Resistance Movement) has introduced legislation that has sought to privatize land tenure in the south and elsewhere in Uganda. This paper argues that neither of these institutional reforms threatened the authority of Bugandan notables in Southern Uganda. Democratic reforms introduced during the war did not address the basis of customary authority in Buganda (land). While in government, the NRM has abandoned the alliance constructed with the southern peasantry established during the civil war. In order to entrench its position in government, attempts to privatize land have not only sought to attack customary authority but also to allow clients of the NRM from elsewhere in Uganda to 'legitimately' accumulate land in the south. As a result, defending customary authority over land allocation has become a means through which peasants in the south have safeguarded themselves against land dislocation. In this way, customary law has functioned as an institution around which resistance to authoritarianism and corruption has been based."
Creating Common Grazing Rights on Private Parcels: How New Rules Produce Incentives for Cooperative Land Management
(2009) Lesorogol, Carolyn K.
"Privatization of common lands shifts legal authority for land use decisions from communities to individual land owners. In so doing, privatization may undermine systems of rules regulating access to and use of common resources, such as grazing land among northern Kenya pastoralists. This study of privatization of pastoral land among the Samburu finds, however, that while individual land owners do claim a high level of autonomy over decision-making regarding their land, new social norms have emerged following privatization that promote the continued accessibility of private land for livestock grazing by neighbor's herds. These new rules stipulate, for example, that land owners who refuse others access to grazing on their property will not be allowed to graze their livestock on any privately owned land in the community. In this way, communal sanctions are used to enforce cooperation in maintaining shared grazing rights, even on private parcels. Furthermore, these rules have differential effects on land owners depending on the number of livestock they own. Those with many livestock requiring greater access to pasture are encouraged to keep their land available to others, while those with few livestock may benefit by enclosing their land and leasing it for cultivation or grazing. Private ownership coupled with such norms regarding access creates varied incentives for land owners resulting in new patterns of land use. The emergence of new norms demonstrates the presence of institutional innovation at community level in the face of de jure shifts in ownership originating from national level policy. This case illustrates the important role of social sanctions in establishing and maintaining cooperation, and the dynamic interplay of public and private realms in Samburu land management."
Decentralizing Forest Management: Pretense or Reality?
(2009) Ghate, Rucha
"Decentralization of forest management in India has taken a leap forward with declaration of the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Rights on Forest) Act (also known as FRA), 2006. After more than a century of centralization, the Forest Policy of 1988 was the first step towards decentralized management. The Act is presented as an effort to set right the injustice inflicted on forest dwellers by handing over ownership of local resources to the local communities. However, the process of formulation of the act witnessed extreme polarization of 'conservationists' and 'human rightists', and also conflict of interest between the ministry of Tribal Affairs and Ministry of Environment and Forest. The elaborate process specified in the Act for each community to stake its claim on the resource, both for settlement of individual claims on cultivated land as well as on commons, provides ample space for the state authorities to make it difficult for communities to actually benefit from the Act. Previous experience regarding the provision of 'Village Forest' in the Indian Forest Act of 1927, and JFM program based on the liberal Forest Policy, 1988, in not encouraging enough for the communities to believe that 'production of local authority' will eventually take place. "The paper begins with some discussion on the concept of decentralization and devolution, followed by a brief review of the legislative provisions for decentralization of forest management in India. After discussing the present status of the Forest Rights Act (FRA)) in Maharashtra state, the paper draws some insights in implementation of the act from an informal study of 5 villages in Chandrapur district of Maharashtra state, and a study of 8 villages located in different forest areas in the state of Maharashtra, India. The study then concludes by highlighting the need to go beyond granting of recognition to 'cultivated areas on forestland', attempted through the Forest Rights Act, to make the access and control over natural resources more meaningful."
Design Principles and Robustness of Spate Community Managed Irrigation Systems in the Punjab, Pakistan
(2009) Kamran, Muhammad Asif; Shivakoti, Ganesh P.
"The spate irrigation is among the oldest and largest community managed irrigation systems in Pakistan and is providing livelihood to local communities through indigenously developed, maintained and managed techniques. The 'Riwajaat-e-Aabpashi' (irrigation customs) codified in British rule are main guidelines for irrigation in lowland systems while upland systems are governed through locally known customs. The upland systems with higher community involvement and free from government interventions in decision making and monitoring are robust compared to similar systems in lowlands with government involvement in decision making and management. The article presents cases from Dera Ghazi Khan (Punjab, Pakistan) where these systems have endured despite of water scarce and unpredictable resource availability by creating situation of equity, impartiality and obeying the rules. This study compares communities against Ostrom's design principles to know the comparative institutional robustness of these systems."
Determinants of Anti-Social Punishment: An Experimental Study of Kavango Timber Users
(2009) Vollan, Bjørn; Pröpper, Michael
"The forest savannah of the Kavango Region in the North-East of Namibia is one of the few remaining resources of wood for a country that is threatened by deforestation. We used a standard public goods experiment framed as a task to extract timber from a commonly owned forest with the possibility to punish each other to analyse determinants of antisocial punishment (i.e. the sanctioning of people who cooperate). Especially, the result of Herrmann et al. (2008) suggests that cross-cultural differences exists and that the efficiency of the punishment rule depends on strong social norms of cooperation. First results suggest that antisocial punishment (ASP) occurred in Kavango as well. We highlight the role of revenge (and to lesser degree of dominance) for ASP and combine our finding with ethnographic evidence on envy and spite in the society."
Development of Public Administration in China: Since 1978
(2009) Shoulong, Mao
"Since the end of 1978, China's economy has developed very quickly because of the introducing of reform and opening up policy. Economic reform is the key source of this 30 year long development, however, successful administrative development is also one of the major factors. This short paper will review the basic economic and social contexts of administrative development, introduce the basic contents of administrative reforms, and oversight the current challenges and logic trends in the near future of administrative development in China."
Disturbance, Response, and Persistence in Self-Organized Forested Communities: Over-Time Analysis of Five Communities in Southern Indiana
(2009) Fleischman, Forrest; Boenning, Kinga; Daedlow, Katrin; Garcia-Lopez, Gustavo A.; López, Maria Claudia; Mincey, Sarah; Schmitt-Harsh, Mikaela; Basurto, Xavier; Fischer, Burnell C.; Ostrom, Elinor
"In this paper we utilize Ostrom's (2007) diagnostic framework for socio-ecological systems to examine the factors that contribute to social responses to disturbances in a set of five Indiana, USA intentional communities over a fifteen year time frame. We argue that the concept of robustness is useful in understanding designed aspects of socio-ecological systems because it emphasizes the trade-offs between achieving different goals, but is difficult to measure over long time-frames and across criteria. We thus introduce the concept of persistence as an empirically observable metric for long-enduring socio-ecological systems. We find that Communities with strong collective choice processes that reflect shared value are more able to respond adaptively to disturbances, and therefore have a higher probability of persisting over long time-frames."
The Effects of Model Project of Self-Governing Coastal Fisheries in South Korea
(2009) Kim, In
From Introduction: "...this paper aims at correctly evaluating the effects of the model project of the self-governing coastal fisheries which Korean Ministry of Maritime Affairs & Fisheries has enforced, at finding the influential factors to the effects, and at suggesting the policy recommendation for improvement of self-governing fisheries."
Ethnic and Class Clustering through the Ages: A Transdisciplinary Approach to Urban Neighborhood Social Patterns
(2009) York, Abigail M.; Smith, Michael E.; Novic, Juliana; Stanley, Benjamin; Boone, Christopher; Cowgill, George; Harlan, Sharon; Stark, Barbara
From pg. 3: "In this paper we describe the initial stage of an ongoing transdisciplinary research project that attempts to forge a new approach to questions of the existence, variation, social context, and causes of social clustering within urban settings. We take a broad perspective by looking at cities from the present back to their beginnings in the Urban Revolution. Our point of departure is the notion that all cities share a set of basic social dynamics that permits comparative analysis of urban life using a wide perspective."
Experimental Investigation of Voting over Common Pool Resources
(2009) Holahan, Robert
"Common pool resource systems are governed by a wide variety of institutions designed to promote long run resource viability. Relatively little work has focused on the use of majority rule voting in managing resource stocks. This paper develops a theoretical and experimental framework for assessing the efficiency of majority rule voting in allocating appropriation rights to a group of resource users. By varying the distribution of individual capacities to appropriate, but keeping the aggregate level constant, we find that systems dominated by large scale appropriators collectively extract more of the resource than systems dominated by small scale appropriators, whether or not voting is used. When voting is used, the resulting policies are more extractive under systems dominated by large scale appropriators."
An Experimental Study of the Efficiency of Unanimity Rule and Majority Rule
(2009) Dougherty, Keith; Pitts, Brian; Moeller, Justin; Ragan, Robi
"We test several claims about the relationship between unanimity rule and Pareto optimality. Buchanan and Tullock (1962), Mueller (2003), and other scholars argue that unanimity rule is more capable of producing Pareto optimal outcomes than other voting rules, such as majority rule, because unanimity rule passes an alternative only if it makes everyone better off. Majority rule can pass alternatives that make some individuals worse off. Dougherty and Edward (2008), in contrast, claim that majority rule is at least as likely to select Pareto optimal outcomes as unanimity rule in finite games if proposals are random, sincere, or strategic. We test the two sets of conjectures in a two dimensional framework using laboratory experiments. Our results suggest: 1) majority rule enters the Pareto set more quickly than unanimity rule, 2) majority rule leaves the Pareto set at the same rate as unanimity rule, and 3) majority rule is more likely to select a Pareto optimal outcome than unanimity rule in the final round of play. Our results also suggest that proposers do not behave observationally rational in the final round and complete information does not affect the primary result."
Exploring Forest Governance: Insights, Challenges, and Lessons Learned
(2009) Tucker, Catherine
"Research on forest governance has intensified in the past decades with evidence that efforts to mitigate deforestation and encourage sustainable management have had mixed results. This paper considers the progress that has been made in understanding the range of variation in forest governance and management experiences. It synthesizes findings of recent interdisciplinary research efforts, with particular emphasis on work carried out by the Center for the Study of Institutions, Population, and Environmental Change at Indiana University. By identifying areas of progress, interesting results, and enduring conundrums, the discussion will point to policy implications and priorities for research."
Factors Affecting Common Property Governance: The Case of Condominium Communities in Beijing
(2009) Wang, Yaocai
"From the 1990s, China began to privatize housing in urban areas while the welfare-oriented public housing distribution system broke up. In 2002, 82.1% of families had their own private condominium units and houses. Homeowners are beginning to emerge. All co-owners have the right and obligation to manage common property, but how does collective action work? What will contribute to common property governance, and how? In the meantime, there are more and more conflicts in common property governance. Beijing Chaoyang District court accepted and heard 194 cases concerning conflicts in common property governance in 2002, and the amount mushroomed to 2649 in 2005. In this paper, I will highlight these questions combined with a comparative analysis between two different kinds of communities. One kind of community set up formal self-governing associations, and another kind has only informal self-governing associations. "There are three hypotheses in this paper, (1) Attributes of physical World affects the way of participants action. (2) Hypothesis 2: heterogeneity affects actors behaviors enormously; (3) Hypothesis 3: Difference of self-governing association has a great effect on rule making and enforcement."
Fear or Greed? Duty or Solidarity? Motivations and Stages of Moral Reasoning: Experimental Evidences from Public-Goods Provision Dilemmas
(2009) Meyer, Leandro F. F.; Braga, Marcelo J.
"Judging from the perspective of standard game theory, empirical research has uncovered a rich array of 'anomalies' that systematically occur in situations that were once thought to have properties leading to clear predictions. This is particularly the case for morally relevant conflicts of action, such as social dilemmas related to the appropriation of common-pool resources and provision of public-goods. Explanation of such anomalies has focused on the effects of structural variables and contexts on people's decisions. However, the present study suggest that classifications or typologies based on such descriptors of the action situation are not enough to explain and predict individuals' decisions in social dilemmas because sociocognitive and moral reasoning has its own stages of development and cannot be deduced from the objective incentive structure or context of action alone. In order to examine this proposition we test experimentally the explanatory power of a selected developmental model designed to rationally reconstruct the pretheoretical knowledge of competently judging subjects. Results indicate that the theoretical constructs in the chosen model provide reliable source of information to explain and predict diverse behavioral responses to similar incentive structures in a public-goods provision dilemmas under variable institutional conditions."
From Power Misuse to Leadership in Bulgaria's Irrigation Sector
(2009) Theesfeld, Insa
"Irrigated water and irrigation infrastructure are common-pool resources. Common-pool resource scholars have advocated taking distributional aspects and power relations into account when analyzing institutional change in common-pool resource management. The way benefits are distributed among various actors is decisive, and the respective political weight of the latter can influence the likelihood of institutional change. When social dilemmas are solved and new rules implemented, some people benefit more than others. Indeed, some may even benefit at the expense of others. Empirical evidence from Bulgaria supports the view that local actors use power asymmetries to maintain their benefits. Ostrom (2007, p.190) points out that, in contrast to the early stages in a process of collective action, inequalities in distribution of benefits may, however, reduce trust and cooperation later in the process. "In the empirical part of this paper, I will highlight the incongruity between formal and effective rules as a transition-typical feature and one environmental determinant for the evolving of destructive leadership. The empirical material highlights that the incongruity of rules enables heterogeneous participants to misuse power asymmetries and, thus, maintain opportunistic strategies. Thereafter, I will present direct empirical evidence for low level of trust in formal actors and perception of corruption. This is typical for an environment where destructive leadership can evolve. "Regarding these empirical results, the paper continues to discuss the need of some heterogeneity, such as the appearance of well-educated and connected leaders to start the process of local cooperation. Yet, the remaining challenge is how to facilitate leadership in early stages of a collective action process without encouraging power misuse of individuals at a later stage."
From the Lab to the Field: Public Good Provision with Fishermen
(2009) Stoop, Jan; Noussair, Charles; van Soest, Daan
"We conduct a field experiment to measure cooperation among a group of sports fishermen at a recreational fishing facility. Group incentives are created to reduce the number of fish caught. Nonetheless, cooperation is observed. Additional treatments explore the differences between behavior in our field setting and traditional laboratory experiments. These treatments establish that students cooperate less than fishermen in a lab setting and that fishermen cooperate more in their natural environment than in the lab, and thus neither the subject pool nor the non-laboratory setting account for the low cooperation in the field experiment."
Good Governance for the Wadden: The Organisation of Decision-Making for Sustainability
(2009) Toonen, Theo A. J.
"In this essay we will place the problems surrounding the governance of the Wadden Sea in the theoretical perspective of the governance of the Commons (section 2). Working on this basis, we will formulate a number of assumptions to evaluate good governance for the Wadden (section 3). We will then apply these assumptions to a short analysis based on both the information from the file of the Adviesgroep Waddenzeebeleid (AGW) [Advisory Group for the Governance of the Wadden Sea] and on our own observations and experience (section 4). Conclusions and recommendations derived from theory and research of commons management will be given in section 5."
The Governance of Infrastructures as Common Pool Resources
(2009) Kunneke, Rolf; Finger, Matthias
"This paper argues that infrastructures (including energy, communication, transport, and post services) can be perceived as common pool resources providing essential services to society. We investigate the features of infrastructures that can be interpreted as common pool resources. Related to four essential functions (system management, capacity management, interconnection and interoperability) we typify common pool resource problems in infrastructures. Since infrastructures are evolving into ever lager, more complex and international systems, the governance of CPR problems seems to shift from vertically integrated firms under strict governmental control towards a distributed market oriented governance. The institutional and technological fragmentation of infrastructures on one hand, and the globalization of the infrastructure networks and business on the other hand, demand new approaches to govern these vital sectors. Interpreting infrastructures as common pool resources provides insights into a 'third way' of regulation based on local initiatives and third sector involvement."
Governance Structure and Performance of Service Delivery in Korean Local Government
(2009) Kim, In
"Many scholars define variously the concept of governance, and suggest variously the desirable model of governance. Some governments provide public services with poor structure of new governance or traditional bureaucratic governance structure depending on policy or service fields. This difference necessarily brings about performance variation of public service delivery. In this context, this paper tries to find impacts of governance structure on the performance of public service deliveries in Korean local governments."
Indigenous Interests Challenging Conventional Protection Typologies: Norwegian Conservation vs. Sami Subsistence
(2009) Riseth, Jan Åge
"This contribution, in following panel objectives, aims to go beyond current discourse on conservation and indigenous issues by analyzing goods' characteristics in order to find op-portunities and limitations in future policy development. The paper is organized into four more sections. Firstly, I give a basic empirical description of as well institutional history as the facts on the ground; as a basis for revealing both common interests and dimensions of con-flict between conservation and indigenous interests. Secondly, I provide a short introduction of relevant aspects of commons theory. Thirdly, I will use this as a platform for an analytic re-flection over how actors' interplay and how different perceptions of goods can contribute to the understanding of patterns of interaction and how traditional Sami use can be integrated into conservation praxis including implications for the use of IUCN categories."
Institutional Determinants of Performance of Drinking Water Community Organization in Rural Areas of Costa Rica: A Comparative Studies Analysis
(2009) Madrigal, Róger; Alpízar, Francisco; Schlüter, Achim
"This paper presents an institutional analysis of the underlying factors affecting the performance of drinking water community organizations in rural areas of Costa Rica. These organizations provide water to more than 25% of total population in the country; however, there is a high disparity in their performance. This research tries to understand how a complex configuration of physical characteristics of watersheds and infrastructure, governance system and socio-economic attributes of user effects different dimensions of performance in rural communities. Using a qualitative approach and matching techniques to ensure comparability, the paper analyzes four communities in-depth to understand what factors and casual mechanisms influence financial and physical performance as well as user satisfaction. The main results highlight the relevance of a demand-driven approach coupled with downward accountability; effective rules for tariff collection and infrastructure maintenance and appropriate support from the government as the main conditions that promote higher levels of performance."
Institutional Innovations: Case Study in Homeowner Self-Governance
(2009) Youhong, Chen
"Given the governance problem posed by CPR, and facing the challenge of institutional obstacles to self-organization, condominium owners chose to create innovations to the traditional pattern of governance. In this paper, in accordance with the theoretical method of Elinor Ostrom's principles of institutional design, two typical cases: Homeowner Representative Assembly System and Trusteeship of Property Management System are compared, analyzed and evaluated. The inquiry derives the institutional incentive conditions for collective action by the specified groups and the requirements of common interest ownership without outside authorities or coercive force. It is shown that homeowner groups can solve the problem of supplying new institutions in ways that go beyond the assumptions of traditional theories of the collective action problem."
Institutionalizing Design Principles in the Irrigation Management Improvement Projects in Nepal
(2009) Pradhan, Prachanda
"Self-governing irrigation organizations have, more or less, imbibed the design principles. The performance of the irrigators organization with the features of the design principles is reported to be satisfactory to the clients of the irrigation systems. "Effort will be made in this presentation to examine not what has happened in the adoption of the design principles in the irrigators organization, but try to analyze how Asian Development Bank funded project on 'Community Managed Irrigated Agriculture Sector Project' (CMIASP) and World Bank funded project on Irrigation and Water Resources Management Project (IWRMP) in Irrigation Management Transfer component in Nepal introduced procedure to strengthen irrigators organization incorporating those design principles identified by Ostrom. "In some irrigators organizations, these principles exist as they evolved over period of time. The issue to examine here is how can these principles be institutionalized with the external midwifery assistance in the newly formed Water Users Associations (WUAS)? What might be complementary and contradictory phenomena when efforts are made to institutionalize those design principles in the new irrigators organization. "Drawing examples from the World Bank and ADB funded projects on irrigation sector as mentioned earlier, procedures to institutionalize design principles will be analyzed and findings will be discussed."
Karya Mandiri Irrigation System: A Case of Long-enduring Irrigation Management Institutions in West Sumatra, Indonesia
(2009) Helmi; Rusdi, Bob Alfiandi
"Karya Mandiri Irrigation System (KMIS) is a community-managed irrigation system that has shown its institutional endurance in passing through management environment changes such as irrigation policy, institutional, economic and technological aspects. Local community has crafted irrigation institutions that enabled them to adapt to the pressures and changes, made necessary investments and performing various management functions. This has made the system continue to exist as a self organizing irrigation system and serve the farmers while many have not successful in responding to the changes. "The KMIS case is an interesting case to assess the applicability of design principles proposed by Ostrom (1992) which consists of: well-defined resource and user group boundaries; congruence between appropriation and provision rules of resource governance; ability of the user group to modify rules; monitoring, sanctioning and conflict resolution mechanisms; political autonomy and nested enterprises for larger system. This paper attempted to identify the commonalities and differences of institutional design principles adopted by the community with those of proposed by Ostrom (1992). In addition to those eight principles the stakeholders at KMIS have moved further to developed social entrepreneurship principle/orientation which tend to be one of the key factor for the sustainability of irrigation institutions."
Marks of Ostromic Intelligible Scholarship in Africa: Taking Theories to the Streets through Polycentric Planning and Poverty Reduction Strategy (PPPRS)
(2009) Akinola, Shittu
"This paper reports the impact of my intellectual encounter with Vincent Ostrom - 'taking theories to the streets.' Knowledge and its application are acknowledged as key sources of growth and development in the global economy, especially if it is adapted to specific circumstances and effectively utilized to generate significant opportunities for reducing poverty and promoting development. However, knowledge generated by African scholars is in defiance of African realities; hence, the persistent gap between theories and realities in all spheres of life. Vincent Ostrom cautions, 'To find a theory useful for thinking about problems does not mean that Africa should copy the American model. The task, rather, is to use conceptions and the associated theoretical apparatus as intellectual tools to think through problems and make an independent assessment of appropriate ways for addressing the problems of contemporary Africa.' The question is: How capable are Africans to resolve their internal crisis without recourse to external assistance? "Using the Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework, this paper identifies and discusses repetitive missing links as well as the areas that are neglected by scholars and policymakers in the governance of community affairs in Africa. The point of departure of this paper, therefore, is in problem solving and solution seeking. It argues that in some ways, the weakness of centralized and structurally-defective governance in Africa provides an opportunity for community self-governing institutions to play the role that governments and their agencies have abandoned. This paper provides case studies and designs models to demonstrate principles and practices needed to make Polycentric Planning and Poverty Reduction Strategy (PPPRS), self-governance and adaptive development strategies resolve socio-economic and political crisis in Africa. It calls the attention of African scholars to the imperative of making their scholarship problem-solving, solution-seeking, and relevant to their community. "The paper, thereafter, charts a course of action that could be taken to ensure that African scholars and African universities become 'organic' in their activities and use their intellectual capabilities to impact positively on their communities. It is in the light of this exigency that two strategic development models are advocated--(1) African Intellectual Gap Measurement Model (AIGMM) designed to measure intellectual potentials and relevance of African universities and (2) African Public Sphere Restructuring Model (APSRM) developed to restructure the public sphere in Africa. APSRM derives inspirations and workability mechanisms from thirteen African development models that cut across several sectors of the economy in Africa. Using polycentric planning and poverty reduction strategy, these home-grown models are concerned with how people can work together, from community level, to address African challenges, especially the current food insecurity and unemployment crisis and thereby tackling the current global economic meltdown in Africa."
Metaphors and Methods for Institutional Synthesis
(2009) Bruns, Bryan
"In the design space between blueprint panaceas and spontaneous order, what scope is there for deliberate institutional artisanship to apply ideas from institutional analysis and design (IAD) and related social science? "This paper briefly surveys approaches to improving institutional design, focusing on applications for irrigated waterscapes and other contexts of institutional diversity. Concepts such as building, balancing, aligning, crafting, fitting, adapting, improvising, and navigating institutions identify assumptions and opportunities for influencing changes in collective action. Analysis suggests what may be necessary, favorable, vulnerable, feasible, or ideal, but better strategies are needed to foster the synthesis of diverse institutions that are not just workable, but good. The range of approaches available may include not only offering examples, enforcement, funding, technical diagnosis, and facilitation processes, but also expanding options, switching starting points, challenging assumptions, asking about design principles, and appreciative inquiry. Examples from irrigation in northeast Thailand and other parts of Southeast Asia illustrate challenges and opportunities for improving institutional artisanship."
Movements from Below, Reforms from Above: The Context for the 1991 Mexican Property Rights Reform
(2009) Gordillo De Anda, Gustavo
"As Elinor Ostrom asserted in her Presidential Address to the American Political Science Association, 'the theory of collective action is the central subject of political science'. In this paper I take that assertion as a central thread of my argumentation. My case study is a network of farmers' associations in Mexico which I believe had a strong impact in the content and implementation of the constitutional reforms of 1991-1992 in Mexico, which changed radically the written rules (and I expect the rules-in-use) regarding property rights in the countryside."
National Parks: From Public Playgrounds to Regional Commons
(2009) Fedreheim, Gunn Elin; Sandberg, Audun
"National parks and protected areas in the northern areas of the planet have for a long period been the prerogative of central governments. With the devolution of responsibilities, powers and property rights to regional authorities and indigenous peoples of the North, the quest for local participation in the governing of protected areas have mounted. At the same time the methods for adaptive ecosystem management have improved considerably and frameworks for analysis of complex Socio-Ecological systems are actively being developed. The paper thus have a diagnostic approach of analysing the evolution of new forms of governing protected areas in Northern Europe at these crossroads of institutional and scientific developments. Of particular interest is a 'commons-formation' process on public and protected land and water areas that moves quite slowly in these northern regions. This paper will focus on the changes in the governance of national parks in the Norwegian and Russian parts of the 'Barents region'. The region consists of many large, untouched areas with intact original ecosystems. Many of these are transboundary ecosystems, but until recently little efforts have been taken to investigate implications of lack of transboundary governance of larger Socio-ecological systems in these areas. Russian national parks ('Zapovedniks') have stricter conservation measures than Norwegian national parks. Here no human activity is allowed, except for scientific studies and border protection. In Norway a national strategy has recently opened up for more nature based tourism (ecotourism) in National Parks, also in a 'joint' park with Russia and Finland. The slow, but gradual changes in property rights are also an important element in the analysis; in Norway ownership of land is gradually moving from the state to regional land holding authorities. In Russia there are also movements between 'federal' and provincial (oblast) ownership and management authority. The type of goods that these national parks provide is used as examples of how this evolution takes place in practice, i.e. how the details in regulations and use practices influence the character of the protected areas as common-pool resources. In a comparative perspective, it is also interesting to see what role these protected areas play in their adjacent rural areas: To what extent are these areas reckoned as crucial in securing rural livelihoods and ecosystem services and to what extent are they perceived as serious obstacles to modernisation, and how are these conflicting views reflected in current legislation and operative rules on the ground?"
Norms Through Minds
(2009) Andrighetto, Giulia; Giardini, Francesca; Conte, Rosaria
"The aim of this work is to enlighten the role of cognitive influencing in norm emergence and compliance. The paper unfolds as follows: in the first part, norm immergence will be described as a necessary mechanism for norm emergence; in the second part, a cognitive analysis of punishment will be provided and the role of this enforcement mechanisms in norm compliance will be shown. Some remarks and ideas for future work will conclude the paper."
Partnerships in Economic Development: What Influences the Formation of Interlocal Development Agreements?
(2009) Hawkins, Christopher V.; Feiock, Richard
"The 'rules of the game' embodied in municipal documents constrain as well as provide opportunities for local government officials to capture individual benefits related to policy action. We test the mediating effect form of government has on the probability of joint venture formation for economic development purposes. Data is generated from a survey of local officials in 2004 and 2007. We find that prior agreements influence future cooperative actions and that institutional arrangements mediate horizontal agreements depending on whether development objectives are local or regional in nature."
Pastoralism within Land Administration: Seasonal Interactions and Access Agreements between Pastoralists and Non-Pastoralists: A Case of Northern Kenya
(2009) Lengoiboni, Monica; Van Der Molen, Paul; Bregt, Arnold K.
"Pastoralists in Northern Kenya maintain their seasonal migrations between drylands-highlands resources, and this often result to interactions with non-pastoralist land use actors. The aim of this paper is to understand how non-pastoralist land use actors manage seasonal encounters with migrating pastoralists. A case study was used to find out if non-pastoralist land use actors made agreements to allow herders grazing access on private land; the nature of those agreements; and their opinions on regularization of these access agreements through formalization in Land Administration (LA). Results showed that the majority encountered seasonally migrating pastoralists in distinct drought periods; the majority never allowed herders access on private land; a least proportion allowed access, and made agreements through spoken and written contracts. Rules formed to regulate pastoralists presence on private land centred on grazing fees, grazing regulations and protection of private property; majority are unwilling to have pastoralists access rights regularized in LA. As land is continuously being adjudicated, surveyed and allocated for private purposes, imposition of statutory rights on pastoralists areas, including migration corridors, permanently cuts out and extinguishes pastoralist rights to mobility and access to required resources. This research argues that land adjudication should identify and confer all existing land rights to all its users, in order to avoid obstruction or re-negotiation for access, and concludes by recommending the inclusion of pastoralists access rights as real property rights which could be accommodated in LA system."
Policy Insights for Community Forestry: Lessons from a comparative analysis of forest management in Honduras, Nicaragua & Tanzania
(2009) Hayes, Tanya M.; Persha, Lauren
From Introduction: "Over the past several decades, common-pool resource scholars and others have consistently cautioned against the use of blueprints or single solutions to sustainably govern all human-environment interactions. Despite such complexity, or perhaps as a consequence of it, there is an astounding uniformity to policy solutions for natural resource management in applied contexts. Designing and implementing sustainable forest management policies that address local contexts while providing a degree of programmatic uniformity is a daunting task for policymakers and program managers. Unfortunately, scholarship on resource management does not always address practical needs of policymakers. "This paper uses a diagnostic approach proposed by Ostrom and colleagues to compare forest management institutions and related conservation outcomes on forest commons. We compare forest management case studies of public, co-management, and community property rights systems in Honduras, Nicaragua and Tanzania. The objectives of the paper are to glean commonalities regarding (1) how different institutional arrangements contribute to forest conservation; (2) the role external governmental and non-governmental agencies in providing financial and institutional support; and, (3) the overall robustness of particular institutional configurations given varied biophysical, socio-economic and political contexts. In our comparative analysis, we are not seeking to develop forest management blue prints. Instead, we are attempting to begin to develop a set of shared lessons that practitioners might draw on when considering how to design and implement forest management on shared forest lands."
The Politics and Economics of 'Fadama' Irrigation and Product Sales in the Tin Mining Areas of the Jos Plateau in Nigeria
(2009) Mang, Henry Gyang
"This work discusses the transition in the politics and economics of irrigation farming in the Jos area of Plateau state, Nigeria. Examining the former and latter constructions of ownership, use, commerce and authority of land and products of obtained from it. The advent of commercial dry season farming called 'fadama' or 'lambu' in the Plateau area around the 1980's produced a new group of temporary migrants. Itinerant farmers from the far north, who took advantage of the deserted mining ponds in and around Jos, the capital of Plateau state in Central Nigeria. This development saw the periodical use by the mainly Hausa farmers from the far north, of land in the dry season, slowly building a community in consonance with a few settled Fulani. The Fulani's are generally known to be nomads, but in recent years, many have settled mainly in the outskirts of the metropolis or in villages all over the north. A new landlord-tenant relationship emerged, which saw the 'tenants' relating well with their hosts, the autochthonous 'land owners' who initially were quite oblivious of this new mode of irrigation, This relationship lasted until the 1990's when skirmishes and emerging interests of the autochthons groups brought conflict between the two groups."
The Politics of Inter-local Cooperation: Is Collaboration Efficiency-Enhancing or Stratification-Preserving?
(2009) Bickers, Kenneth N.
"In this paper, I focus on key factors that contribute to interlocal collaboration. The argument contrasts two different logics for the emergence of interlocal agreements: (1) that such cooperation results from efficiency-enhancing efforts of local officials seeking economies of scale in the production of capital-intensive goods; and (2) that interlocal cooperation might result from stratification-preserving efforts of local officials seeking to prevent the dilution of the voter groups on whom they rely for electoral support. These two logics derive respectively, though not exclusively, from the Tiebout tradition of focusing on the competition among local governmental jurisdictions for citizen-consumers as an efficiency-enhancing market-like mechanism; and from critiques of the Tiebout tradition in which fragmentation of local jurisdictions within metropolitan areas is typically viewed as a mechanism for preserving social stratification and inequality. I then describe a database that is in the process of being constructed for testing the two arguments. These data are drawn from the 2002 Census of Governments and the 2000 Census of Population. Tests of the two logics indicate substantial evidence for the efficiency-enhancing argument but not the stratification-preserving argument."
The Polycentricity of Innovation: Explaining Variation in the New Role of the States in Science and Technology Policy
(2009) Kauneckis, Derek
"There have been important shifts in the locus of activity in science and technology (S&T) policy within the American federal system. Traditionally the states have followed a research agenda set at the national level and acted as the implementation organization for federal funds. Today the states have taken on an increasingly proactive role as active partners in collaborative arrangements, provide independent funding for local research priorities, as well as setting their own agendas even counter to those the federal level. While the most high profile cases include stem cell research, alternative energy and climate change mitigation these are indicators of an increasingly autonomous and independent role of the states in directing S&T policy. This paper examines the types of state-level activities, their distribution and provides evidence to explain the variation. It uses a theoretical framework derived from research on public goods production within polycentric systems of governance to explain the various strategies adopted by the states in this new landscape of S&T policy. The paper concludes with implications for redesigning federal S&T support as well as lessons for state governments."
Property Rights Enforcement by Other Means: The Role of Non-Governmental Organizations
(2009) Joireman, Sandra
"In this paper I examine the role of one set of 'privately-ordered institutions' non-governmental organizations and the role they play in enforcing property rights. The paper will proceed in four parts. First, I examine the role of NGOs in the post-independence African state and the proliferation of the non-governmental sector in the past two decades. Then, I discuss the role of NGOs in enforcing property rights, giving concrete examples from Uganda. The third section of the paper will evaluate the effectiveness of NGOs in property rights enforcement and their social welfare provision contrasted with that of the state. The paper will conclude with a discussion of how we might view the encroachment of NGOs into the area of law enforcement and specifically into the economically important realm of property rights."
Property, Predators and Patrons in Romania
(2009) Sikor, Thomas; Dorondel, Stefan
"This chapter examines the reasons for new forest owners' frustrations in Dragomiresti and Dragova. How were Rudari able to exploit forests in Dragomiresti even though villagers held titles to the forest, and although there were forest guards and policemen in place to protect private ownership? What allowed the logging firm to take advantage of new owners in Dragova even though the mayor and Forest Inspectorate had the mandate to enforce regulations on its operations? Searching for answers to these questions we come to look at the predatory practices of policemen, forest guards and mayors, as they targeted new owners as easy prey. We also examine their efforts to develop relations of patronage with owners and other villagers. Our account thereby uses insights from earlier research on patron-client relationships. The concept may have dropped out of favor in the more recent literature, but we find certain insights from the literature on patron-client relationships very useful for making sense of forest dynamics in Dragomiresti and Dragova. The insights include the observation that relationships between patrons and clients develop on the basis of unequal power relations. They tend to involve exchanges of economic and political resources, generating benefits for all involved parties even if only nominal in some cases. Moreover, patronage relations are intimately interwoven with the role of the state. Our interest in forest property thus makes us connect with another debate about the nature of the Romanian state, in particular the notion that powerful actors 'capture' the local state.
The Prospects for Management of a Fragmented Aquifer by a Divided Farm Community
(2009) MacKinnon, Anne
"This paper analyzes the factors at play to identify what appears necessary for this community to take collective action to manage its water resource."
Regional Integration through Agreements: Does Multiplexity in Urban Service Deliveries Matter?
(2009) Andrew, Simon A.; Kendra, James M.
"While most scholars in urban studies and public management tend to conceptualize networks as having interdependent properties---with multiple sets of organizations working together (directly or indirectly) on common problems---few explore the importance of multiplexity in these relations. Multiplexity refers to the tendency of network members to develop interorganizational ties across different sets of activities, deepening or fortifying the relationship between actors. We test the multiplexity hypothesis among 66 agencies in the area of law enforcement activities in the Orlando-Kissimmee MSA. We analyze this across five time-periods using a specialized network software called 'SIENA.' Our results support the claim that a network of contractual ties, captured through interlocal agreements (ILAs), reveals how localities relate to each other through more than one service area. We also found, in a service area with high asset-specificity transactions, that there is a tendency for local agencies to establish contractual ties through central actors. While we did not find evidence that agencies within municipal governments would establish ties among themselves, there is evidence that those agencies having external accreditation tend to work jointly through ILAs. This research contributes to the literature by identifying the conditions that explain movement toward regional integration through ILAs."
Repertoires of Domination in Decentralization: Cases from Botswana and Senegal
(2009) Poteete, Amy; Ribot, Jesse C.
"Decentralization policies ostensibly change the distribution of authority between center and locality by empowering a variety of local of actors and organizations, such as user groups, traditional authorities, or multipurpose local governments. While decentralization may empower some local actors, if implemented, it can threaten the authority of central or other local actors. Those who stand to lose from decentralization can be expected to defend their authority and access to resources as best they can. The set of acts more-powerful actors can perform as they make claims to defend - or entrench and expand - their interests may be described as repertoires of domination. Decentralization programs may alter the effectiveness of particular performances, but threatened actors have several alternatives in their repertoire. We develop the concept of repertoires of domination and illustrate their influence in Botswana and Senegal, where government officials, local elites, and commercial interests have used their repertoires of domination to limit the extent of local-level democratization achieved through the decentralization of natural resource management."
Rethinking African Governance
(2009) Olowu, Dele
"Discussions on the future of African development led in the late 1980s led to a critical refocusing on governance. Since then enormous resources have been poured by African governments and development partners into improving governance. This paper reviews this experience and suggests a different approach to enhancing African governance, taking a cue from the present consensus on the subject. "States exist to promote the welfare of their citizens. They do this mainly by providing public services, services that cannot or will not be efficiently, effectively or equitably provided by private sector agencies without prodding from public authorities. The quality of these public services has a direct impact on a county's economy, social integration and living standards. But African states have failed where it matters most--in the provision of adequate public facilities and services that will energize economic performance, consolidate democracy and peace in the continent. "This paper situates this systemic failure in the triple failure of African public service management institutions to attract and retain talent, to mobilize resources to pay for scarce skills and also to create appropriate institutional mechanisms that would ensure high productivity and responsible performance within the public sector. The paper discusses the present international consensus for assisting Africans to tackle these problems as embedded in the Paris Declaration of 2005 and shows that the program is not only over-ambitious and impractical but also a-historical. The paper then proposes an alternative strategy that responds to the above-mentioned challenges in a way that ensures that Africa modernizes its public service institutions to support democratic developmental states that improve the welfare of their own people in the age of global competition for scarce human resource skills."
Rights, Pressures and Conservation in Forest Regions of Mexico: The Results of a Survey on the Conditions of Community Forests
(2009) Merino, Leticia; Martínez, Ana Eugenia
"For decades forests debate has had an important place in public debates in Mexico. The predominant image of the country's forest is that of a generalized deforestation, accompanied by diagnoses that blame collective property and rural poverty. It is true that deforestation and forest deterioration are frequent realities in many poor Mexican regions, but these processes cannot be understood in their diversity and complexity, through simple equations and reductionistic approaches. Simplified perceptions of socio-environmental realities become worrisome on their turn, when they work as unquestioned presumptions for public policies. Panaceas created and proposed from centralized arenas, foreign to local realities have often result in scare or no capacity to address specific problems and needs. "In the following pages we present some of the main demographic, social and economic characteristics of these communities, their uses of the forests and their perception on forest pressures. We also include a brief description of forest policies during the 2000 decade and their general impacts on forestry. Based on the results of empirical research, this work seeks to provide information and insights for a more comprehensive understanding of Mexican forest communities, closer to the particular conditions of forest communities."
The Role of Institutions in Providing Public Goods and Preventing Public Bads: Evidence from a Public Sanitation Field Experiment in Rural Kenya
(2009) Sheely, Ryan
"Why are some communities able to prevent actions that harm the viability of public goods, while others are not? Why might the same set of institutions operate in very different ways in two otherwise similar communities? In this paper, I outline a theory that shows how the extent to which third-party governance is embedded in local norms and networks can explain variation in the availability of public goods and the effectiveness of law-enforcement institutions over space and time. Analysis of data from a large-scale field experiment supports some of the implications of this theory, showing that anti-littering rules enforced only by government agents are ineffective at motivating long-term behavior change. The more general theoretical implication of these findings is that formal enforcement does matter for public goods outcomes, but that third party enforcement institutions must be locally embedded in order to maintain the availability of public goods over time and that in some cases, sustained collective action may be an effective substitute for third party enforcement."
Spatially Explicit Ontology for the Institutional Analysis of Social-Ecological Systems
(2009) Evans, Tom; Cox, Michael; López, Maria Claudia
"Dynamics within complex social-ecological systems (SES) are the product of a diverse array of socio-economic and biophysical processes. The spatial structure of these systems often influences the management of resources (e.g. forests, water, fish) including the institutional rules that are developed governing how these systems can be used. Prior work has developed frameworks to describe SESs to address what institutional contexts make SESs resilient or sustainable, but without articulating the spatial relationships inherent in these systems. The objective of this paper is to develop an ontology designed to describe the actors, resources and relationships within an SES, with an emphasis on the spatial relationships inherent in human environment interactions. This ontology can be used to explore what spatial structures contribute to the resilience or sustainability of SESs. Many elements of SESs have explicitly spatial characteristics that in part affect the dynamics within those systems such as the proximity of actors to a resource, or the size of land holdings. The ontology presented here emphasizes the actors and resources in a system as well as the spatial characteristics and relationships that relate to the institutional factors affecting system dynamics. A series of three distinct case studies are used to demonstrate how this ontological framework can be applied to specific SESs. While the presentation here focuses on community level dynamics, the general framework presented here is broadly applicable to a wider array of analytical scales from local to regional level dynamics."
'Squatting' as a Means of Establishing Authority Over Forest Land in Zimbabwe: A Missing Dimension to Land Reform
(2009) Matose, Frank; Maravanyika-Mutimukuru, Tendayi
"An analysis of squatting around a protected forest in north-western Zimbabwe is done in the paper to further scholarship that focuses on the 'negotiability' over access to land in a broad political economic context of an unfolding land reform. This case focuses on the politics of that broader process at a micro-level in one district perceived by the government as having excess land while the reality on the ground is more complex. Land reform in Zimbabwe has largely focused on land privately owned by white commercial farmers and neglected State land, particularly national parks and forests. Some districts such as the one the paper focuses on are defined as having adequate land for its inhabitants, albeit in a patron-client manner. The paper therefore analyses the contestation by people who invaded a protected State forest thereby resisting this general misconception surrounding state land. The paper examines the unfolding struggles over land around the forest in relation to the complex negotiations over property and authority in the country. The paper also analyses the power relations among the players who 'invaded' the State forest which is at the centre of this paper. Different layers of the exercise of authority are witnessed where at the national level, ruling party leaders have provided a framework for giving land to peasants which in turn unleashes local level actors (political leaders) to seize the opportunity to exercise authority by leading land invasions and squatting. We conclude by suggesting that in situations of conflict and uncertainty, examining authority relations (processes of legitimacy) may provide useful insights about the connections between authority and property."
The Structure of Interlocal Service Networks and the Effects of Administrative and Electoral Conjunctions on their Formation
(2009) LeRoux, Kelly; Carr, Jered B.
"Local problems often spill over the borders of one jurisdiction into the next, creating a need for cities to cooperate on the planning and delivery of local public services. Networks of interlocal agreements (ILAs) provide a way for cities in a fragmented metropolis to cooperate on services, and these networks may be especially likely to form when local government officials are linked through interpersonal networks. Drawing on Williams' Lifestyle Model of Metropolitan Politics and Frederickson's theory of administrative conjunctions, this paper uses network analytic methods to examine the structure of ILA networks, and to assess the impact of governing officials' interpersonal networks on the probability of ILAs forming between cities. The Detroit metropolitan area provides the context for this study. Results suggest that cities cooperate more extensively across the metro area for systems-maintenance functions, such as public works and public safety. More importantly, we find that any given cluster of cities has an increased probability of cooperating through ILAs when their city managers' participate in the same local professional network. The same effects hold true for mayors' networking with counterparts, and for some function, serve as an even stronger predictor of ILAs forming."
Tensions between Participation and Expertise in French Watershed Governance and Management
(2009) Thomson, James T.
"This paper assesses French fiscal and institutional approaches to watershed governance and management. These began, as large-scale, coordinated efforts, with passage of major water legislation in the country in 1964. This legislation constituted the first major French policy response to a 20th century challenge collectively identified by French hydrologists, water lawyers and other water experts. Though France is generally 'well-watered,' these experts argued that the country would be endangered within decades by growing shortages of potable water, and as well by inadequate supplies of water required to attain other objectives such as preserving riverine environments and the life forms there found; energy production; irrigation; recreation and tourism, and food production. To respond to this challenge French political decision makers created, by national legislation, six major watershed districts that covered the entire land area of metropolitan France as well as the Departements d'outre-mer and Territoires d'outre-mer (D.O.M.-T.O.M.). These were initially conceived, and functioned solely as, resource mobilization entities with a mandate to raise the funds necessary to finance construction of a wide range of water supply and sanitation infrastructure facilities."
Towards A Theoretical Model of Urban Growth
(2009) Murillo, D.; Anderies, John M.; Castillo-Chavez, C.
"The overwhelming trend is for urban areas to grow. The challenge is to accentuate the positive impacts of this growth (innovation, art, wealth, etc) while mitigating the negative burdens (crime, pollution, poverty, loss of biodiversity, etc). However, this challenge is complicated by the interconnected physical, biological and social issues. There are several studies on just one aspect of this problem, but we propose a more encompassing approach by looking at the interplay between institutions and ecological processes (topography, economics, etc) using both computational and analytical (mathematical equations) approaches. We used simplified equations to build an intuition towards a more comprehensive modeling framework."
Transboundary River Governance in the Western US: The Role of Cross-Scale Linkages in Interstate Compact Compliance
(2009) Schlager, Edella; Heikkila, Tanya
From Introduction: "Interstate river compacts highlight and exemplify the importance of cross-scale linkages within a watershed. The design, structure, and organization of compacts define linkages and relations among and across states, or what Young (2002a) refers to as horizontal linkages. In addition, the relations and linkages between state governments and water users, or vertical linkages, affect the operation of compact governing bodies and compliance with water allocation rules. In this paper we focus on the relations between state governments and water users and the effects of those relations and ties on the operation and performance of compacts, in particular the ability of states to comply with their compact commitments. To help identify what types of cross-scale linkages would affect the operations and compliance with compacts, we conduct a brief review of the burgeoning literature on cross-scale linkages and compliance. This review provides guidance for developing measures of linkages as well as suggesting research questions. Next, we provide a short overview of interstate river compacts, what they are, and how and why they were created. The types of compliance issues that may arise in the context of interstate compacts and their cross-scale linkages are also explored. We then engage in a preliminary analysis of these linkages to begin to explore the research questions and conclude with a discussion of the implications of these linkages, as well as how these data can be assessed in more depth in future analyses. "
Types of Goods and the Scale of Effects in Transboundary Protected Areas
(2009) Schoon, Michael L.
"Advocates of transboundary protected areas (TBPAs) often claim that the cross-border nature and large scale of these parks lead to the fulfillment of three distinct sets of goals - improved biodiversity conservation, regional economic development, and the promotion of peace between nations. However, key actors often place very different weightings on these goals, leading to very different agendas. One of the major challenges for park officials lies in balancing these goals and agendas in the governance of a transboundary protected area. By decomposing transboundary protected areas into the suite of goods and services being provided, this paper intends to offer insights into some of the challenges emergent from the diverse goals listed by park proponents and contestation between actors. Some of these goods and services may be viewed as public goods, while others are private, some are common-pool resources, and others are toll goods. Additionally, some of the challenges of managing for these goods and services stem from the scale of provision, with biodiversity conservation often seen as a global benefit, for instance, while economic development and job creation occur at a local level. Without considering the scale of effect and the type of good, governance of park resources may be misguided, counterproductive and ineffective. "This research draws upon interviews of NGO employees, park officials, and government staff from six case studies in southern Africa to explore the principle types of goods and services provided by TBPAs. These include biodiversity conservation, carbon sequestration, provision of ecosystem services, regional economic development, tourism entertainment, and improved relations between neighbors, among others. It then employs a diagnostic framework for analyzing a SES to navigate the governance dilemmas that emerge from both the complex bundles of goods and services provided and the scale of effects."
Using the IAD's Institutional Grammar to Understand Policy Design: An Application to Colorado Aquaculture
(2009) Siddiki, Saba; Weible, Chris; Basurto, Xavier; Calanni, John
"This draft offers a preliminary analysis of an on-going project to develop guidelines for applying the IAD's Institutional Grammar to understand the content of policy design. We seek to understand the foundational elements of policy design by examining the individual institutional statements that constitute policies. The Institutional Grammar offered by the Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework is a valuable tool with which to systematically identify the institutions-in-form that govern behavior of people in collective action situations. Understanding how these statements are modified over time may be indicative of broader changes regarding how policy issues are framed, altered contextual factors, and new actors and sources of information entering the policy arena. In this study, we adapt the IAD's Institutional Grammar to code the major laws and regulations of Colorado State aquaculture, through which we identify the institutions-in-form that guide aquaculture activities in the State. We focus our discussion on offering insights regarding the applicability of the IAD's Institutional Grammar as it is currently presented, including theoretical limitations and suggestions for improved applications."

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