Course: The Ideal of Self-Governance: Public Policy Beyond Markets and States

Where do self-governing solutions come from? In the previous week, we learned that this process begins when citizens are confronted with a collective action problem and spot an opportunity to …

Our recent experience in the Covid-19 pandemic has introduced us to a serious collective action dilemma that arguably cannot easily be solved by self-governance mechanisms. Economists might argue that unless …

How do communities change their residents’ incentives to manage common pool resources without resorting to individual private property or government ownership? In this video, we explore two case studies: 1) …

As we come to the end of our course, let’s reflect on what we have learned. We began in week 1 by exploring collective action dilemmas that we often face …

The second set of objections to the case for self-governance centre around the issue of inequality. If citizens are allowed to devise their own solutions to a plethora of collective …

We will now consider the first set of possible objections to the case for self-governance. Two of the main practicality objections are that 1) self-governing institutions can lead to an …

What are the arguments in favour of self-governance and polycentricity? In this video, we will consider two types of arguments. The first concerns the effectiveness of self-governance, which can be …

On a daily basis, we are confronted with hundreds, if not thousands of social dilemmas that require governance solutions. These can include dilemmas of a global scale, like climate change …

It is often assumed, even within the economics discipline, that there are two predominant ways to solve collective action dilemmas. The first is to make a common resource someone’s private …

Before we explore how self-governing institutions function, we need to consider the problems they are meant to address. In this video, we discuss what economists call collective action dilemmas. These …

Let’s get started by asking ourselves a fundamental question: What is governance? How does it differ from government? Use the discussion space below to write down your own definitions of …

In the previous sessions, we looked at a number of case studies highlighting how public entrepreneurs provide governance solutions to local collective action dilemmas, working side-by-side with public authorities to …

When we started the course, one of the first questions we asked you to consider was the difference between the terms ‘governance’ and ‘government.’ Since then, we’ve learned that governments …

Welcome to the final week of the course. In the previous weeks, we explored how self-governance mechanisms operate in a variety of policy arenas. This week, we will consider how …

In the previous week, we discussed self-governing institutions as possible solutions to collective action problems. We also began considering real-world case studies of self-governance. This week, we’ll learn more about …