Tragedy of the Commons and Comedy of Common Property Resources

Common Property Resources A Damodaran This paper underlines the analytical and ideological significance of differentiating the tragedy-stricken free-riding' common resources from the comedy-prone common property resources, sustainahly and equitably managed by the community of users. It is argued that while state take-over of common property resource is retrograde, state appropriation of the free-riding commons pre-empts the possibility of their transformation to common property equity resources.