Why do we need to protect institutional diversity

Abstract

In past decades, scholars have tended to recommend 'optimal' solutions for coping with common-pool resources. Examples exist of both successful and unsuccessful efforts to establish government property, private property, or community property. The absence of any property rights - open access - related to valuable resources is associated with overuse. The resource institutions that research has documented as working well in the field differ substantially in their detailed design but can usually be characterised as adaptive, multilevel governance systems related to complex, evolving resource systems. We need to overcome the tendency to recommend panaceas and encourage, instead, considerable experimentation at multiple levels to reduce the threats of massive collapses of valuable resources. © 2012 European Consortium for Political Research.