A Political Economy Model of Common Property Regimes and the Case of Grazing Management in Zimbabwe

Conceptual frameworks for the analysis of common property regimes are important because they allow for the comparison of individual cases and generalisation across diversity. The framework proposed by Oakerson (1986) is critically examined and although many of its features are useful and worth retaining, it is found to be inadequate in its treatment of the key issues of power and authority, on the one hand, and of social and economic structure, on the other. Struggles over access to and control over common property resources often arise from structural inequalities which have to be made central to analysis. The Oakerson model also tends to neglect the importance of ecological dynamics and does not make sufficient provision for disjunctions between technical and ecological aspects. Modifications are suggested which allow for the analysis of these dimensions. This "political economy" model of the commons is put to the test by applying it to the analysis of grazing management schemes in the Communal Lands of Zimbabwe. Detailed ethnographic data on the complexities of intra-community power struggles in one such scheme are briefly summarised, and the model is used to diagnose the underlying reasons for the problems which have emerged within this scheme. 1. GRAZING SCHEMES IN ZIMBABWE’S COMMUNAL LANDS Policies and programmes aimed at improving livestock production and range management have been a feature of agricultural development programmes in the Communal Lands of Zimbabwe from the 1920s through to the present. The assumptions underlying these initiatives as well as the detailed prescriptions proposed to perceived problems have demonstrated a great many continuities. The main assumptions have been that: (a) communal area livestock production systems are inherently inefficient; (b) productivity is low because of poor management both of stock and of rangeland; (c) high stocking rates in excess of carrying capacity are leading to severe environmental degradation; and (d) cattle should be used for beef or dairy production and other uses are inefficient or less important. Also influential has been the view that the