Rick Wilson T 12:30-3:30

Baker 226, x3352

rkw@rice.edu

http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~rkw/pls441.html

Office Hrs: Monday, Tuesday 11:00-12:00, Wednesday 1:00-2:00 or by appointment.

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Common Property Resources (CPR’s) are an endemic social dilemma. Texas Gulf Coast shrimpers experience the problem of overfishing, Nepalese farmers face the problem of water use for dry farming, students face the problem of internet usage and people fleeing a hurricane face traffic jams. CPR’s are simple to characterize: they involve public goods that can be privately consumed and once consumed, they disappear. While it is in everyone’s interest to ensure that the public good is preserved, everyone has an incentive to overuse that good.

Why is this a political science class? The usual solution for handling CPR's involves simply imposing a governmental mechanism. Typically this means a top-down solution for the problem, regardless of the fit to the specific problem. In recent years many political scientists have argued that this is an ill-conceived public policy solution. Local institutional arrangements often craft much better mechanisms to resolve local CPR's. This class teaches some of the tools available for understanding and analyzing a host of local social and political problems.

During the course you will be touching on a number of different readings. You will learn something about Institutional Analysis and Design; you will learn a little game theory; you will learn about laboratory experimental methods. Please approach the material with an open, but skeptical mind.

Textbooks.

The following should be purchased. In addition, you will read several articles which are available in the journals or in my box in the Department. These are noted in the syllabus.

• Ostrom, Elinor. 1990. Governing the Commons : The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action. Cambridge: Cambridge Univesity Press.
• Diamond, Jared. 2005. Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. New York: Viking Press Press.

You will need a computer account (of course you have one). You will need to keep in touch with others via e-mail. You will need access to the Web -- much of the class material and periodic memos will be posted at the site given above. In addition, much of the information you need is on the net.

Research Project.

The primary focus of the seminar will be your research project. The research project will be less of an academic exercise and more of a "hands-on" exercise. CPRs and Public Good problems are everywhere and the project will require that you identify and analyze such a problem in the Houston area. You will work as a "team" with one or two other class members. The team will conduct research on the "problem," the team will make periodic reports in class, the team will present its findings to the afflicted parties, and the team will write a formal paper detailing its recommendations.

You will have a number of deadlines to meet. However, each deadline will help you keep your research project on target.

Overview of deadlines:

Jan. 29	Brief overview of the project. (One page memo.)
Feb. 12	Research design. (Multi-page memo.)
March 25	Initial findings. (Multi-page memo.)
April 15	Presentation of findings and recommendations to class/organization. (Oral and visual presentation.)
April 22	Final paper. (Multi-page paper.)

Grading:

This is a seminar. There will be no exams. Grades will be based on the following: class participation 25%; written assignments (prior to final paper) 30%; presentation 15%; final paper 30%. You are expected to keep up-to-date with all reading assignments and to be prepared to discuss the readings during class. Expect to be called on in class to discuss the readings. The Honor Code is in effect for all class assignments. This applies to the "team" work. The entire team is responsible for its work. This may not seem fair, but it happens to be the way the world beyond the hedges works.

Course Outline (Readings in my box are marked with a *).

Note: Readings are subject to change. Keep current with the syllabus.

Date	Topic	Readings
Jan. 8	Introduction
Jan. 15	Logic of the Commons	Ostrom, Chapter 1 Garrett Hardin. 1968. "Tragedy of the Commons" Science, 162:1243-1248. *Ostrom, V. and E. Ostrom. 1977. "Public Goods and Public Choices," Pp. 7-49 in Alternatives for Delivering Public Services: Toward Improved Performance. (E. S. Savas, ed.) Westview Press. Ostrom, Elinor. 1999. "Coping With Tragedies of the Commons." Annual Review of Political Science. 2: 493-535. (Available at: http://polisci.AnnualReviews.org/cgi/content/vol2/issue1 )
Jan. 22	Examples of CPRs	Ostrom, Chapter 1. Diamond, Chapters 1-5
Jan. 29	Game Theory Basics	*Henry Hamburger. 1979. Games as Models of Social Phenomena. Chapters 1-4, 7 (pp. 1-100; 155-195).
Feb. 5	Research Design	*Earl Babbie The Practice of Social Research (9th Ed.). Chapters 4, 5, 10 (pp. 90-114; 118-146; 275-301
Feb. 12	Case Studies 1	Diamond, Chapters 6-9.
Feb. 19	Case Studies 2	Chapters 10-13.
Feb. 26	Institutions	Ostrom, Chapter 2. *Ostrom, Elinor, Roy Gardner and James Walker. 1994. Rules, Games and Common-Pool Resources. Chapter 2 (pp. 23-50).
March 4		Mid Term Break
March 11	CPR Analysis	Ostrom, Chapters 3-5 (pp. 58-181).
March 18	CPR Framework	Ostrom, Chapter 6 (pp. 182-216).
March 25	Applied CPRs	*Ostrom, Elinor, Roy Gardner and James Walker. 1994. Rules, Games and Common-Pool Resources. Chapter 10-14 (pp. 221-318).
April 1	Other Perspectives	Diamond, Chapters 14-16
April 19	April 8 Work Week
April 15	Presentations
April 22	(Last Class -- Technically a Thursday) Final Paper

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