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Thesis or Dissertation The Management of Social Stability: A Political Ethnography of the Hutterites of North America(1969) Baden, John"This is a study of the attempts of members of a small society, the Hutterians, to perpetuate their social and cultural systems in a setting they perceive as fundamentally alien and hostile. Collectively, the members of this group seek to be independent of the control of outsiders although perfect autonomy and self-sufficiency are, of course, precluded. The group stands inextricably involved in the political and economic affairs of the larger society."Thesis or Dissertation The Erosion of Public Highways: A Policy Analysis of the Eastern Kentucky Coal-Haul Road Problem(1978) Oakerson, Ronald J."[This dissertation] extends work initially undertaken for a Master's essay on the subject of unlawful coal hauling on the highways of Eastern Kentucky. The analysis builds upon the theory of public goods and considers the impacts of common property relationships on public goods in order to pose the general problem of joint and alternative uses. The object of the research is to explore the limiting factors in present institutional arrangements and the possibilities of different institutions. The methodology includes the use of personal interviews to reconstruct the strategies and claims of different participants and the conduct of legal research to determine the relative availability of different remedies."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."Thesis or Dissertation Property, Politics and Rural Labor: Agrarian Reform in Chile, 1919-1972(1973) Loveman, Brian"This study focuses on the political processes and forces that transformed the traditional system of property in rural land in Chile from 1919 to 1972. The central thesis of the study is that the transformation of rural Chile from 1919 to 1972 cannot be understood without reference to the long struggle of Chilean campesinos, aided by urban political parties, labor organizations, and the 'urbanization of the countryside,' to wrest control of the countryside from the Chilean hacendados."Thesis or Dissertation Government and Water: A Study of the Influence of Water Upon Governmental Institutions and Practices in the Development of Los Angeles(1950) Ostrom, Vincent"The balmy mediterranean climate of Southern California has attracted millions of people to its coastal plain; but nature has imposed a critical limit upon local development by failing to provide an adequate water supply. Water, as the crucial barrier, has been a most significant determinant of both the extent and the pattern of municipal growth and development. "Los Angeles, deriving its basic policies and institutional patterns from its Spanish foundation, continues to retain the control and ownership of its water resources in the municipal community except the distribution of water for domestic purposes. Private entrepreneurs, contractors and leaseholders distributed the domestic water supply until the city acquired full ownership and control in 1902. "The water rights derived from the Spanish pueblo gave Los Angeles prior use to the water of the Los Angeles River. With this water supply, Los Angeles assumed early leadership as the principal city in Southern California and expanded its boundaries by absorbing thirsty suburban areas. "Municipal administration of the water and power utilities required a bureaucracy to perform the necessary services and operations. Organized in a single department, the administration of the water and power systems has been divided between two nearly autonomous bureaus. The Department of Water and Power has attained great freedom of action within the Los Angeles city administration except for civil service regulations. "Where water is vital to community growth and development, public policies relating to it inevitably become crucial political issues for the community and its government. Politics is an essential tool of administrators to realize their program of water resources development. "To construct and administer the necessary water works, and to transport a new supply of water from the Colorado River to the Southern California coastal plain, Los Angeles joined with other municipalities to devise a special agency, the Metropolitan Water district of Southern California, to govern this metropolitan water supply system. "Water intimately involves Los Angeles in a complex of important inter-governmental relations with other units of local government, the government of California, other neighboring states, and the government of the United States. The administration of city-owned lands in water supply areas has created special problems of tenancy and absentee ownership. "Overcoming the natural shortage of water has taxed the ingenuity of citizens, civic leaders and public officials of Los Angeles to determine proper policies and to devise adequate institutions to meet future needs. An appreciation of the potentials of water as a catalyst in community growth, a mold for political institutions and an influence upon political practice can enable imaginative leaders to better shape the future of a Greater Los Angeles."Thesis or Dissertation Economic Efficiency in Common Property Natural Resource Use: A Case Study of the Ocean Fishery(1969) Bromley, Daniel W."The common property ocean fishery is often cited as an example of economic inefficiency in production. The usual recommendation is to restrict entry of fishermen so that 'incomes' of those remaining are improved. Such logic would seem to indicate that the economic theory of common property natural resource use is not well developed. It was with this premise that the current investigation commenced. "A mathematical model of productive interdependence among firms in a common pool situation was developed. Following this, the concept of rising supply price for an industry exhibiting productive interdependence was introduced. The concept of a fishing-day was introduced and it was argued that the firm viewed a fishing-day as one of its variable inputs. "When the above concepts were combined With the biological model presented, a bioeconomic model of the fishery evolved. The model permitted illustration of the impact upon industry output from changes in: (1) technology; (2) demand for the product; and (3) fish population; and the chain of ramifications which result, when current production is something other than the sustained yield of the fish in stock. "The usual charge that a common property fishery is 'inevitably overexploited' was evaluated in the context of the bioeconomic model and seen to be false. The traditional recommendation, to restrict entry such that fleet marginal cost equals fleet marginal revenue, so as to maximize 'rent,' was shown, instead, to. merely create higher than competitive returns (profit) for remaining fishermen. The disregard for those: fishermen excluded, by such action was questioned on equity grounds, as well as on grounds of economic efficiency. It was also demonstrated that depending upon demand for the product and technology of the industry, equating, fleet marginal cost with fleet marginal revenue was not sufficient proof that the fish stock would not be overfished."