Size
The effect of the number of participants facing problems
of creating and sustaining a self-governing enterprise is
unclear. Drawing on the early work of Mancur Olson
(1965), many theorists argue that size of a group is
negatively related to solving collective-action problems
in general (see also Buchanan and Tullock 1962). Many
results from game theoretical analysis of repeated games
conclude that cooperative strategies are more likely to
emerge and be sustained in smaller rather than larger
groups (see synthesis of this literature in Baland and
Platteau 1996). Scholars who have studied many user-
governed forestry institutions in the field have concluded
that success will more likely happen in smaller groups
(see, for example, Cernea 1989).