Hardin’s oversimplification was twofold:
He claimed that only two state-established institutional arrangements—centralized government and private property—could sustain commons over the long run, and he presumed that
resource users were trapped in a commons dilemma, unable to create solutions (7–9). He
missed the point that many social groups, including the herders on the commons that provided the metaphor for his analysis, have struggled successfully against threats of resource
degradation by developing and maintaining
self-governing institutions (3, 10–13). Although
these institutions have not always succeeded,
neither have Hardin’s preferred alternatives of
private or state ownership