elinor ostrom

I'm only a chapter in but I think Elinor Ostrom's book Governing the Commons is going to be one of the best things I read this year. (I'm saving The Mirror and the Light for the weekend and glorious guilt-free uninterrupted pleasure reading hours; I started it last week but it's unsatisfying to take sips.) The tragedy of the commons always struck me as an overly pessimistic assumption, and I'm sad that it took so long for me to come across such a trenchant and concerted attack on the idea that it's an inevitable outcome of leaving people to manage resources without imposing private property rights or central planning.