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Taking sanctioning seriously : The impact of sanctions on the resilience of historical commons in Europe

De Moor, Tine ; Farjam, Mike LU ; van Weeren, René ; Bravo, Giangiacomo ; Forsman, Anders ; Ghorbani, Amineh and Ale Ebrahim Dehkordi, Molood (2021) In Journal of Rural Studies 87. p.181-188
Abstract
In their studies of collective exploitation of common-pool resources, Ostrom and other scholars have stressed the importance of sanctioning as an essential method for preventing overuse and, eventually, the collapse of commons. However, most of the available evidence is based on data covering a relatively small period in history, and thus does not inform us about the evolution of rules, including sanctions, over time. In this article, we demonstrate, based on historical sources covering several centuries, that sanctioning was not always the preferred way of preventing or dealing with free-riding in institutions for collective action, but that the legal context is decisive to understand why commoners in some countries were using more... (More)
In their studies of collective exploitation of common-pool resources, Ostrom and other scholars have stressed the importance of sanctioning as an essential method for preventing overuse and, eventually, the collapse of commons. However, most of the available evidence is based on data covering a relatively small period in history, and thus does not inform us about the evolution of rules, including sanctions, over time. In this article, we demonstrate, based on historical sources covering several centuries, that sanctioning was not always the preferred way of preventing or dealing with free-riding in institutions for collective action, but that the legal context is decisive to understand why commoners in some countries were using more sanctions than those in others to regulate commoners' behavior. Commoners that could self-govern their resources used fewer sanctions, and when they did, it was mainly to avoid overuse of their most vulnerable resources. Moreover, graduated sanctioning seems to be less important than suggested in Ostrom's famous Design Principles, and was reserved primarily for immediate threats to the commons' resources. We also show the importance of other types of rules, such as differentiated rules, which have hardly been taken into account in literature to date. (Less)
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author
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organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Commons, Sanctioning, Institutions for collective action, Free-riding
in
Journal of Rural Studies
volume
87
pages
8 pages
publisher
Elsevier
external identifiers
  • scopus:85115058704
ISSN
0743-0167
DOI
10.1016/j.jrurstud.2021.08.009
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
3a79835c-4602-404c-8393-32efc3b6b240
date added to LUP
2021-09-20 08:36:13
date last changed
2022-04-27 03:58:51
@article{3a79835c-4602-404c-8393-32efc3b6b240,
  abstract     = {{In their studies of collective exploitation of common-pool resources, Ostrom and other scholars have stressed the importance of sanctioning as an essential method for preventing overuse and, eventually, the collapse of commons. However, most of the available evidence is based on data covering a relatively small period in history, and thus does not inform us about the evolution of rules, including sanctions, over time. In this article, we demonstrate, based on historical sources covering several centuries, that sanctioning was not always the preferred way of preventing or dealing with free-riding in institutions for collective action, but that the legal context is decisive to understand why commoners in some countries were using more sanctions than those in others to regulate commoners' behavior. Commoners that could self-govern their resources used fewer sanctions, and when they did, it was mainly to avoid overuse of their most vulnerable resources. Moreover, graduated sanctioning seems to be less important than suggested in Ostrom's famous Design Principles, and was reserved primarily for immediate threats to the commons' resources. We also show the importance of other types of rules, such as differentiated rules, which have hardly been taken into account in literature to date.}},
  author       = {{De Moor, Tine and Farjam, Mike and van Weeren, René and Bravo, Giangiacomo and Forsman, Anders and Ghorbani, Amineh and Ale Ebrahim Dehkordi, Molood}},
  issn         = {{0743-0167}},
  keywords     = {{Commons; Sanctioning; Institutions for collective action; Free-riding}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  pages        = {{181--188}},
  publisher    = {{Elsevier}},
  series       = {{Journal of Rural Studies}},
  title        = {{Taking sanctioning seriously : The impact of sanctions on the resilience of historical commons in Europe}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2021.08.009}},
  doi          = {{10.1016/j.jrurstud.2021.08.009}},
  volume       = {{87}},
  year         = {{2021}},
}