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Governing the Binghamton Commons Rethinking Governance in our Region from a Scientific Perspective

INTRODUCTION • All animal and human groups function as adaptive units only under special circumstances. • Failures of coordination can occur for many reasons.

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Governing the Binghamton Commons Rethinking Governance in our Region from a Scientific Perspective

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  1. INTRODUCTION • All animal and human groups function as adaptive units only under special circumstances. • Failures of coordination can occur for many reasons. • Large human groups, such as cities and states, are products of cultural evolution and frequently function very poorly as adaptive units. • Modern evolutionary social science can be used to help them function better. POLYCENTRIC GOVERNANCE • Myriad activities take place in any large human population. • Each activity has its own optimum scale. • For example, the optimal scale for a police precinct might be a neighborhood while the optimal scale for a forensic lab might be a multi-county region. • The groups engaged in each activity are best qualified to govern themselves. • Governance at a large scale must therefore be polycentric. Governing the Binghamton CommonsRethinking Governance in our Region from a Scientific Perspective ElinorOstrom will be visiting Binghamton to consult with us and give an public address on February 28 2012 MODERN EVOLUTIONARY SOCIAL SCIENCE • The study of human social behavior has experienced a renaissance during the last few decades. • Integration of previously isolated disciplines. • Evolutionary theory provides the overarching theoretical foundations. RESTORING SOCIAL CAPITAL •Binghamton has a shortage of groups capable of managing their own affairs. • This is part of a more widespread erosion of social capital documented by the sociologist Robert Putnam in Bowling Alone. • A high priority is therefore to facilitate the creation and functioning of groups of all kinds as a the first step toward polycentric governance. • Then the groups must be appropriately related to each other and to the formal city government as the second step. DESIGN FEATURES REQUIRED FOR GROUPS TO FUNCTION AS ADAPTIVE UNITS A strong group identity and awareness of the purpose, rights and obligations of the group. A fair distribution of costs and benefits among members of the group. Consensus decision making. Efficient monitoring to detect misbehaviors. Graduated sanctions that start mild and escalate as necessary. Fast, fair conflict resolution mechanisms Local autonomy, allowing groups to manage their own affairs. Appropriate relations among groups (polycentric governance) ELINOR OSTROM AND COMMON POOL RESOURCE GROUPS • Conventional economic wisdom holds that use of common resources invariably results in the tragedy of overuse. • If so, then the only solution is to privatize the resource or regulate from above. • ElinorOstrom received the 2009 Nobel Prize in economics for showing that groups are capable of managing their common concerns, but only if they possess certain design features. JOIN OUR DISCUSSION GROUP! • Our discussion group meets on the third Tuesday of every month. • Dinner begins at 6, discussion at 7:30. • A different local eatery every month. • Everyone interested in getting involved welcome. • Email bnp@binghamton.edu to join.

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