Transhumance Paths and CPR's

Before we left Fontecchio and made our way over to Amalfi, we stopped at Caporciano and got to walk up to a really cool castle. From here we were able to see several small villages and the paths they shared to move cattle from one grazing area to another. It was also really cool to see the mountainsides which some farmers would have to move their flocks of sheep over when recourses were scarce or the change in seasons made grazing harder. This trip perfectly tied into the article Mitch and I had the honor of presenting tho the class.

Our article primarily consisted of analyzing the relationship of individuals who belong to a common property and the state. Why this is an important topic is because if the state has too much control  over the members of a CPR, the regulations can be overbearing to the point that the operation becomes very inefficient. An interesting point that the article makes is a theoretical idea called the tragedy of the commons. This is the idea where the people that share a common area of land all act in only self interest. This selfishness is very harmful to the land and destroys the future benefit of of any of the members of the commons. However, this idea is lacking one key variable which is the fact that commons members can monitor each other and implement punishments to anyone who chooses not to comply with the rules. 

After this last example you might ask the question, why was the state needed at all if everyone could keep each other in check. The reason is because the state was able to cut down on certain costs. For example, the state would handle costs that are necessary for all members of the common such as fencing or creating paths. Another interesting thing that would happen during this time was that there would actually be people sent out on some of the transhumance paths to collect taxes from the farmers. It was really cool getting to know about this piece of history and our visit to the castle gave me an awesome view of what these commons might have looked like.