Zurich Open Repository and Archive University of Zurich Main Library Strickhofstrasse 39 CH-8057 Zurich www.zora.uzh.ch Year: 2017 Democracy, markets and the commons Peter, Lukas Posted at the Zurich Open Repository and Archive, University of Zurich ZORA URL: https://doi.org/10.5167/uzh-158362 Dissertation Published Version Originally published at: Peter, Lukas. Democracy, markets and the commons. 2017, University of Zurich, Faculty of Arts. DEMOCRACY, MARKETS AND THE COMMONS Thesis presented to the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences of the University of Zurich for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Lukas Peter Accepted in the fall semester 2017 on the recommendation of the doctoral committee: Prof. Dr. Urs Marti-Brander (main supervisor) Prof. Dr. Francis Cheneval Prof. Dr. Philipp Gonon Prof. Dr. Ugo Mattei Zurich, 2018 “We stand at the gates of an important epoch, a time of ferment, when spirit moves forward in a leap, transcends its previous shape and takes on a new one. All the mass of previous representations, concepts, and bonds linking our world together are dissolving and collapsing like a dream picture. A new phase of the spirit is preparing itself. Philosophy especially has to welcome its appearance and acknowledge it, while others, who oppose it impotently, cling to the past.” G. W. F. Hegel, in a lecture on September 18, 1806, quoted in Francis Fukuyama’s End of History (1992) “There is enormous inertia – a tyranny of the status quo – in private and especially governmental arrangements. Only a crisis – actual or perceived – produces real change. When that crisis occurs, the actions that are taken depend on the ideas that are lying around. That, I believe, is our basic function: to develop alternatives to existing policies, to keep them alive and available until the politically impossible becomes politically inevitable.“ Milton Friedman, Preface to Capitalism and Freedom (1982) 1 Summary of Contents Introduction............................................................................................................6 1. The Concept of Democracy.......................................................................13 2. State Monopoly and the Competitive Market....................................23 3. Garret Hardin’s Tragedy of the Unregulated Commons...............39 4. Overcoming the Tragedy with the Ostroms.......................................46 5. An Ecological Understanding of the Commons................................86 6. Towards a Commons Theory of Property........................................137 7. The Role of the State in a Commons Creating Society................208 8. Commons and the Market.......................................................................258 9. Conclusion.....................................................................................................290 Literature............................................................................................................312 2 Contents Introduction..............................................................................................6 1. The Concept of Democracy............................................................13 1.1. Democracy as a Contested Concept...........................................................................................13 1.2. Models of Democracy......................................................................................................................15 1.3. Surplus and Foundational Meanings of Democracy...........................................................17 2. State Monopoly and the Competitive Market.........................23 2.1. Hobbes: Anarchy, Leviathan and the Competitive Market...............................................24 2.2. Justifying the Market: Social Order, Protection from Arbitrary Powers and Unlimited Wealth......................................................................................................................................25 2.3. Self-Regulation, Limited Politics and the Open-Access Market......................................28 2.4. Economist Kings, Authoritarian Liberalism and Structural Constraints....................32 3. Garret Hardin’s Tragedy of the Unregulated Commons.....39 3.1. The Tragedy: Maximization Strategies and the Double C-Double P Game................39 3.2. Social Institutions Against Tragedy: Privatism or Socialism...........................................42 4. Overcoming the Tragedy with the Ostroms............................46 4.1. Collective Action and “Grim” Social Dilemmas.....................................................................47 4.2. The Tragedy of Monocentric Orders.........................................................................................49 4.3. The Tragedy of Privatization and the Market.......................................................................52 4.3.1. Different Types of Goods (Part I).......................................................................................53 4.3.2. Market Failure and Privatization.......................................................................................56 4.3.3. The Tragedy of the Market...................................................................................................59 4.4. Overcoming Tragedy through Collective Action..................................................................66 4.4.1. A Behaviorist Theory of Bounded Rationality and Norm-Oriented Agents......66 4.4.2. The Importance of Reciprocity, Trust and Reputations............................................69 4.5. Self-Governing Commons with the Aid of Eight Design Principles...............................71 4.6. Institutional Diversity and Polycentricity...............................................................................78 4.7. Interim Conclusion...........................................................................................................................83 5. An Ecological Understanding of the Commons......................86 5.1. Nature, Language and Social Relations....................................................................................87 3 5.2. Preliminary Reflections on the Concepts of Nature............................................................91 5.3. Autopoiesis and the Interdependent Co-Creation of Reality..........................................96 5.4. Ecosystems, Abundance and Natural Commons...............................................................102 5.5. Empathy, Cooperation and Common(s) Reality................................................................112 5.6. Ecological Freedom and Care....................................................................................................116 5.7. The Civic Tradition of Ecological Democracy and Commoning...................................123 5.7.1. The Civil Tradition of Democracy....................................................................................124 5.7.2. The Civic Tradition of Democracy...................................................................................126 5.7.3. Eco-law, Commons and Commoning.............................................................................130 6. Towards a Commons Theory of Property.............................137 6.1. The Normative Language of Goods.........................................................................................138 6.2. Common Needs, Common Resources and Common Property.....................................143 6.3. Reinterpreting John Locke’s Theory of Property from a Commons Perspective. 149 6.3.1. Locke’s Justification of Individual Private Property................................................150 6.3.2. From (Self-)Ownership to Guardianship......................................................................152 6.3.3. From Non-Interference to Non-Domination...............................................................157 6.3.4. From Individual Labor to Interdependent Needs.....................................................167 6.4. Pre-distribution: Commons in a Property-Owning Democracy..................................177 6.4.1. John Rawls’ Property Owning Democracy...................................................................177 6.4.2. Rawls’ Notion of the Individual and Society...............................................................181 6.4.3. The Competitive Market and the Problem of Endless Growth............................183 6.4.4. From Productivity to Care..................................................................................................186 6.5. Consumption Goods: Individual or Common Property?................................................193 6.5.1. Different Types of Goods (Part II)..................................................................................194 6.5.2. Maximizing Consumption and the Population Myth...............................................196 6.5.3. Collaborative Consumption and Relative Abundance...........................................201 6.6. Interim Conclusion........................................................................................................................205 7. The Role of the State in a Commons Creating Society.......208 7.1. Preliminary Reflections on the State-Commons Relationship.....................................208 7.1. Varieties of the State and the Role of the Commons........................................................211 7.1.1. Commons in a Hierarchical and Monocentric State.................................................211