A Critical Evaluation of Garrett Hardin’s ‘The Tragedy of the Common’

Abstract

The relationship between living and non-living beings within the ecosystem is crucial to their mutual survival. Plants, animals, humans, and even the land itself must accommodate one another to sustain the environment. Sustainability becomes threatened when individuals act solely in their own interest to the detriment of others. Garret Hardin’s The Tragedy of the Commons highlights the risk of unregulated use of shared resources by self-interested actors, predicting inevitable environmental ruin. This paper critically engages his thesis using comparative and critical analysis to assess both its validity and its applicability, particularly within the African context. It argues that Hardin overlooks the value of community-led cooperation and misrepresents the idea of the commons by confusing common property with open-access property. His call for government regulation, privatization, and under-consumption poses greater risks in societies already struggling with poverty and hunger. In places like Africa, under-consumption would bring severe hardship, not sustainability. In essence the idea of excessive governmental control, especially in fragile institutions, may worsen inequality and exploitation. However, in contrast, community-based collective action provides us with a more adaptive, humane, and effective approach to managing shared resources. This paper concludes that while Hardin raises important concerns, his proposed solutions are both simplistic and potentially harmful if applied uncritically to complex, diverse societies.