The Tragedy of the Commons The idea of the Tragedy of the Commons was popularised by Garrett Hardin. He invites us to picture a medieval village pasture i that is open to all and to assume that each peasant will try to keep es many cattle as possible on this land. Eventually, the carrying capacity of the land will be reached. However, when confronted with a decision about whether or not to put an extra cow on the common land, the rational self-interested peasant will recognise that, whilst all the benefits of the extra cow accrue to her or him aloner the costs the effects of overgrazing wil be shared with the other villagers. Thus each villager will keep adding more cows until the common land is destroyed: Therein is the tragedy. Each man is locked into a system that compels him to increase his herd without limit in a world that is limited. Ruin is the destination toward which all men rush, each pursuing his own best interest in a society that believes in the freedom of the commons Freedom in a commons brings ruin to all (Hardin 1968: 1244) Hardin uses the common land of a medieval village as a metaphor for contemporary environmental problems to show how private benefit and public interest seem to point in opposite directions This metaphor can be used to analyse contemporary problems such as over fishing and deforestation. Ostrom (1999) make a persuasive argument demonstrating that tragedies of the Commons are real, but not inevitable p 281). See Ostrom (1990) for a critical discussion of common property issues