Library

Overview

This book is an attempt to understand the logic of collective action. Phrased in an Olsonian sense how do elites in heterogeneous groups take the initiative to provide a public good and ensure compliance of resource users with institutional rules regulating its use? Watershed management in Haryana provides the mosaic against which the logic of the game unfolds. Water contractors, forest guards, resource poor and well to do farmers, non-governmental organizations and international donors are all part of the cast. The book uses data sets of farming households drawn from 1996 and 2000 to compare changes in distribution of household endowments; by using a composite weighted index, the book overcomes the limitations posed by previous studies that rely on household income or caste/class profile to understand the basis of heterogeneity/homogeneity. The combination of field surveys that cover a total of 28 watershed management groups and a detailed case study of two groups helps to root the analysis of collective action in a milieu of caste and gender based hierarchical social relations, entrenched corruption within parastatals and variations in climatic, soil and groundwater conditions. Further, by making innovative use of satellite imagery and forestry assessments, it attempts to link behavioural change to changes in the natural environment that is differentiated both spatially and temporally. The book undertakes to bridge the disciplinary gap between the Property Rights School (dominated by articulations of game theory) and the Entitlements School (characterized by expressions of the rights based approach). From a policy perspective the book suggests the possibility of a refreshingly new conceptualization of the private sector in provision of rural services through a critical analysis of the many pitfalls and prospects for public-private partnerships in management of forest and irrigation resources. Scholars of collective action, especially those with an interest