In his 1968 article, “The Tragedy of the Commons,” Garrett Hardin puts forth the theory that over-exploitation occurs in the commons as a direct result of the inability of the individual to see outside of their own utility; specifically, the fact that each herdsman looks only to the benefits that are associated with the acquisition of an additional animal to the herd without limit as a result of the fact that the negative aspects of the same are minimal and divided between all who utilize the commons. The issue arises from the fact that each herdsman follows the same pattern of logic, looking to their own utility, and failing to realize the fact that the resources available in the commons are limited, resulting in an eventual over-exploitation of the resources (Hardin, 1968).
The social remedy that Hardin believes holds the greatest promise for preventing and rectifying conditions of commons degradation is to “abandon the use of the commons” due to the fact that the only time that the use of the commons may seem justifiable is “under conditions of low population density” (Hardin, p. 1248). As the conditions of low population density are no longer met, Hardin recommends the abandonment of the commons entirely for common usage (Hardin, 1968).
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The sheer fact of the matter is that as a result of the current social structures present within society today, and as a result of the current social institutions, the use of the commons is no longer practical in modern society (Schaefer, 2012). While it is possible that the commons may still be utilized effectively in certain hunting and gathering societies, or pastoral societies, due to the increases in population density in today’s day and age, the implementation of the commons, in the gross majority of situations, is no longer feasible (Schafer, 2012).
