Cold-War Commons: Tragedy, Critique, and the Future of the Illiberal Problem Space
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Monica Eppinger
Abstract
Major twentieth-century social theories like socialism and liberalism depended on property as an explanatory principle, prefiguring a geopolitical rivalry grounded in differing property regimes. This article examines the Cold War as an under-analyzed context for the idea of “the tragedy of the commons.” In Soviet practice, collectivization was meant to provide the material basis for cultivating particular forms of sociability and an antidote to the ills of private property. Outsiders came to conceptualize it as tragic in both economic and political dimensions. Understanding the commons as a site of tragedy informed Western “answers” to the “problem” of Soviet collective ownership when the Cold War ended. Privatization became a mechanism for defusing old tragedies, central to a post-Cold War project of advancing “market democracy.” Meanwhile, the notion of an “illiberal commons” stands ready for redeployment in future situations conceived as tragically problematic.
© 2018 by Theoretical Inquiries in Law
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Introduction
- The Banality of the Commons: Efficiency Arguments Against Common Ownership Before Hardin
- Before the Tragedy of the Commons: Early Modern Economic Considerations of the Public Use of Natural Resources
- Commons and Environmental Regulation in History: The Water Commons Beyond Property and Sovereignty
- Cold-War Commons: Tragedy, Critique, and the Future of the Illiberal Problem Space
- The “Commons” Discourse on Marine Fisheries Resources: Another Antecedent to Hardin’s “Tragedy”
- Savagery, Civilization, and Property: Theories of Societal Evolution and Commons Theory
- Historicizing Elinor Ostrom: Urban Politics, International Development and Expertise in the U.S. Context (1970-1990)
- Indigenous Peoples, Political Economists and the Tragedy of the Commons
- Commons and Cognition
- Confronting Hardin: Trends and Approaches to the Commons in Historiography
- Give Us Back Our Tragedy: Nonrivalry in Intellectual Property Law and Policy
- Re-romanticizing Commons and Community in Israeli Discourse: Social, Economic, and Political Motives
- Impeachment by Judicial Review: Israel’s Odd System of Checks and Balances
- Israel’s “Constitutional Revolution”: A Thought from Political Liberalism
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Introduction
- The Banality of the Commons: Efficiency Arguments Against Common Ownership Before Hardin
- Before the Tragedy of the Commons: Early Modern Economic Considerations of the Public Use of Natural Resources
- Commons and Environmental Regulation in History: The Water Commons Beyond Property and Sovereignty
- Cold-War Commons: Tragedy, Critique, and the Future of the Illiberal Problem Space
- The “Commons” Discourse on Marine Fisheries Resources: Another Antecedent to Hardin’s “Tragedy”
- Savagery, Civilization, and Property: Theories of Societal Evolution and Commons Theory
- Historicizing Elinor Ostrom: Urban Politics, International Development and Expertise in the U.S. Context (1970-1990)
- Indigenous Peoples, Political Economists and the Tragedy of the Commons
- Commons and Cognition
- Confronting Hardin: Trends and Approaches to the Commons in Historiography
- Give Us Back Our Tragedy: Nonrivalry in Intellectual Property Law and Policy
- Re-romanticizing Commons and Community in Israeli Discourse: Social, Economic, and Political Motives
- Impeachment by Judicial Review: Israel’s Odd System of Checks and Balances
- Israel’s “Constitutional Revolution”: A Thought from Political Liberalism
