The Tragedy of the Commons

Full Title or Meme

A situation in which individual users, who have open access to a resource unhampered by shared social structures or formal rules that govern access and use of that resource.

Context

• Prior to an article The Tragedy of the Commons by Garrett Hardin the term The Commons found little use in scholarly articles.
• The Commons Dilemma as it is now known looks at the case where people interest in maximizing their own welfare, destroy the common good on which they all rely.