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Conference Paper Institutional Failure and Reform: A Problem in Economic and Political Analysis of Water Resource Development(1967) Ostrom, Vincent(From pp. 1, 2, & 8): "The purpose of this conference is to consider the question of what special contribution, if any, can political scientists make to the analysis and formulation of public policy? At an earlier time, essentially the same question might have been posed by inquiring about What special contribution can political scientists make to political reform? More recently, the reform motif has become something of an anathema to the more scientifically rigorous political scientists. Yet, we keep returning to the problems of reform like moths drawn to a candle flame. Perhaps we will be able to make a special contribution as political scientists to the analysis and formulation of public policy only when we develop the capability for analyzing the issue of reform with some measure of professional competence. "My invitation to participate in this meeting was to direct attention to the tangible and practical problems of public policy associated with water resource development and not to discourse about political reform as such. Yet, contemporary studies of water resource development persistently turn to allegations of institutional failure among resource development and management agencies and conclude by either explicitly or implicitly proposing a program of reform. Most of these studies have been made by economists, those done by political scientists have a similar, albeit, variant approach to institutional failure and reform. The studies by economists are both more systematic and more consistent in their critique, and I shall use their work as the principal point of departure. "There are quite tangible and practical reasons, unrelated to the wiles of politicians, for problems of water resource development to become deeply involved in the political process. The water problem is, in fact, a multitude of problems, but most of these are problems of fluidity. Whenever water behaves as a liquid, it has the characteristics of 1) a common pool, flow resource involving; 2) a complex bundle of potential goods and bads which sustain; 3) a high level of interaction or interdependency among the various joint and alternative uses. The interrelationships among all three of these characteristics of a water resource situation simply compounds the difficulties in settling upon stable, long-term institutional arrangements for the economics development of water resources."Working Paper Exchange of Water Supply(1960) Ostrom, Vincent"California's water 'problem' arises from a personal preference congeries relevant to an area yielding limited water supplies. Semi-arid Mediterranean Southern California coastal regions provide climatic amenities attractive to population. These same weather conditions are expensive to water resources. By contrast, more abundantly supplied Northern California has not attracted large populations. Yet in the modern metropolis a relatively abundant water supply is essential to meet a variety of requirements. The resolution of this paradox is central to California water resource development. Marked contrasts in water yield and population distribution can be noted in comparisons of the south and north coastal areas of California. The south coastal area comprising Ventura basin and the Southern California coastal plain contains over one-half of the state's population with less than two percent of the state's natural run-off. By contrast, the north coastal area has less than three per cent of the state's population with nearly forty per cent of the state's water crop. The problem of geographic redistribution of water supplies is further complicated by extreme seasonal and cyclical variations in floods and droughts."Working Paper Socio-economic Survey of Lower Rufiji Flood Plain: Rufiji Delta Agricultural System(1974) Sandberg, Audun"This report has been prepared by BRALUP researchers for planning officers and TANU cadres at the district and regional level, and for members of the Rufiji Basin Development Authority. It deals with the specific problem: how to implement the policy of ujamaa in the Rufiji Delta, which is the lower part of the Rufiji Flood Plain. (The upper part of the flood plain is called the Rufiji Valley.) Now that the Rufiji Flood Plain has been made a special National Development Area, there is a great need for data on natural and human resources. This report aims at providing such background data which can enable the planners to make realistic plans to further the development of peasants in the Rufiji Delta."Conference Paper Deep-Sea Mining: Comments from the Floor(1968) Goldie, L.F.E."This Association has, since its foundation, participated honorably and effectively in the 'progressive development of international law and its codification'. Thus, long before the United Nations General Assembly was given this function, the International Law Association was called into being as a scientific group above the contest of sectional interests and as an entity whose deliberations would clarify problems both de lege lata (questions of legal analysis and codification) and de lege ferenda (questions of law reform and justice)."Conference Paper Enforcement of Water Pollution Control Laws(1971) Wenner, Lettie M."Pollution control today is a favorite topic for campaign promises by American politicians. If the present public interest in the environment and problems of overpopulation continues, it may one day replace motherhood as the single safest subject for political rhetoric. Everyone, including polluters, is against pollution."Conference Paper Western Water Institutions in a Contemporary Perspective(1964) Ostrom, Vincent"The imperative necessity of today in considering western water institutions is a critical assessment of where we are and a careful identification of some of the problems which must be faced if we are to make intelligent use of the region's water resources. In this essay, I would like to begin a critical reconsideration of basic water policies and institutional arrangements by pointing up some of the incongruities between transitional formulations and contemporary requirements. I have the profoundest respect for the intelligence and imagination that went into the formulation of the institutional arrangements which have done so much to facilitate the development of the American West. But, the achievements of former generations do not remove the responsibility for using our best intelligence in analyizing contemporary developments and for using our most effective imagination in considering the future course of events. At the risk of oversimplification, I would like to challenge a few implicit assumptions and basic commitments which seem to pervade much of our traditional approach to contemporary water problems."Conference Paper Economics of Competition for Water(1965) Davis, Robert K."Each day something like 300 billion gallons of fresh water is withdrawn for use in homes, factories, businesses, or on irrigated farmland. These quantities are withdrawn from water courses, kept in circulation sometimes for several cycles of re-use, and then either returned to a water course, which may be a ground water aquifer, or depleted into the atmosphere. Some water is, of course, embodied in the products of manufacture. There is both immensity and great diversity in the uses we make of the water we withdrawn from our lakes, streams and underground aquifers."Conference Paper Constitutional Decision-Making: A Logic for the Organization of Collective Enterprises(1968) Ostrom, Elinor"In examining the outcomes of constitution making at the local level, political scientists and economists have often despaired at the resultant crazy-quilt pattern of local governmental units. One might also argue that despair should be directed at the lack of an appropriate logic to explain behavior in the on-going political process. Market behavior also appears as highly disorganized, until viewed with the help of a logic for explaining the order resulting from simultaneous, inter-related decision making in a market place. When we have developed an adequate logic or calculus to explain the behavior of local governmental systems, we may be surprised at the extent of order we can discover. We should then be better prpared to propose improvements in the on-going political process. For some time now a literature has been growing at the fringes of political science and economics which provides the beginnings of a new logic of collective action. From these theoretical foundations, one can begin to develop a relatively coherent logic of constitutional behavior at the local level. During this discussion of the logic of establishing collective enterprises, illustrations related to the management of a ground water basin will be used. The problem of ground water basin management is particularly useful in helping to understand the logic of constitution making since it is a classic example of a common-pool resource--the actions of any producer affect all other producers utilizing the basin. Secondly, the issues are relatively clear-cut and easily determined by an outside observer. Problems of ground water basin management are not in the main affected by party politics, race relations and other divisive issues of the day. In essence, one can assume all other things are held constant while examining the behavior of individuals related to this one set of events. This is as close to a laboratory situation as we can get when we are interested in the behavior of on-going systems. This type of analysis could also be applied to many others problems of metropolitan areas including housing, sanitation, recreation, and transportation."Thesis or Dissertation Public Entrepreneurship: A Case Study in Ground Water Basin Management(1965) Ostrom, Elinor"The traditional literature of political science and economics has given little consideration to the strategy used by individuals in organizing public enterprises to provide public goods and services. Economists have long been concerned with entrepreneurship, but have largely confined their analysis of entrepreneurship to the private market economy. Political scientists most often take a governmental agency as given and rarely investigate the problems of undertaking new public enterprises. The perspective of public entrepreneurship was taken in this study in order to better understand the process of launching new public enterprises and of devising a public enterprise system to undertake a ground water basin management program. The study was based primarily upon the use of documentary materials. Increasing salt water intrusion in a ground water basin was the stimulus which evoked the efforts of entrepreneurs to seek public solutions to their common problem. The physical and institutional conditions confronting water producers in the West Coastal Basin of southern California as they began to organize for public action in 1945 is described in an introductory section. Next, the strategies of those who functioned as public entrepreneurs are examined in a case study which involves (1)the organization of a water producers' and users' association to function as a forum for the consideration of common problems, (2) the creation of a municipal water district to provide a supplemental surface supply, (3)the use of litigation to achieve a limited pro-rata rationing of the local ground water resources, (4) the development of institutional arrangements to test the effectiveness of a fresh-water barrier against the sea and to place a prototype barrier into operation along a one-mile section of the exposed coastline, (5) the design and creation of a water replenishment district as a ground water basin management enterprise and (6) the development of a management plan involving the coordinated action of several public water agencies to assure the continued use of ground water supplies in conjunction with imported surface supplies. Finally, the performance of this public enterprise system was evaluated in relation to its capacity (1) to realize its physical objectives, (2) to secure operational agreements with other agencies and (3) to develop an optimal program in terms of economic efficiency. Physical objectives and operating agreements have been attained but a non- optimum program has been developed. The institutional arrangements implicit in the structure of this ground water basin management system have not motivated ground water producers to take full account of the social costs of their actions. By developing a more economic source of water supply than the alternative sources now being developed by state agencies this local ground water basin management program will, to that extent, be an important long-term force contributing to the more efficient use of water resources in Southern California."Conference Paper Water Resource Management: Regional Planning(1963) Ostrom, Vincent"An analysis of American experience in water resource management and regional planning afford a useful opportunity to examine the development of American institutions in an important segment of American society. The ways that resources are exploited for human purposes is an important key to an understanding of institutional arrangements and public policies in any society. New institutional arrangements and accommodations are initiated as new problems and opportunities arise in the development of water resource potentials. At the same time, many of the earlier institutional arrangements maintain their continuity of operation within the changing social scene. "This analysis will first turn to a consideration of patterns of local development undertaken by individual proprietors, private agencies, and by local government agencies. These developments largely involved single- purpose projects concerned with the consumptive use of water for on-the-land developments. The fullest development of water resource management by local agencies can be illustrated by reference to the experience of the Southern California metropolitan region. Efforts to develop regional solutions in some of the large inter-state watershed basins will then be explored. Specific references will be made to experience in the Tennessee valley and in the Columbia basin."