Governance of the global commons: a question of supply and demand, the answer of polycentricism

Abstract

Global commons refer to resource domains or areas that lie outside the

physical or political reach of any one nation state, such as the Atmosphere

or the High Seas. With a growing world population and the related challenges

of pollution, food shortages and political tensions, these global commons are under pressure. Resources can also be harvested on a scale larger than ever before as a result of technological advancements. This makes many global commons vulnerable to over-consumption and degradation. Global collective action problems need to be tackled to avoid catastrophes. But what does (and should) such global governance look like? We will try to answer this question by regarding actors involved in such governance regimes, ranging from indigenous tribes to international organizations, as actors with a bounded rationality, vying to achieve results that reflect their preferences. Using rational choice theory we assume that these actors have their preferences in what global governance must supply, which in turn determines their demand of certain governance regimes.