outline
- Property
institutions
- Property
rights in water: two historical trajectories
- Efficiency
and equity principles
- Ideological
justifications of property
- Property
institutions and EU water policy
property
institutions
- Institutions
can be characterised as regularised patterns of social behaviour,
which are socially constructed, both formal and informal, and
relatively stable (SIRCH Project).
- Property
rights represent a fundamental element in the regulation of individual
and collective behaviour, may be recognized by law or custom,
and may prove difficult to change.
water
institutions: two historical trajectories
- Starting
point: The different nature of hydrologically-related uncertainty,
especially with respect to water availability for food production.
- First model:
collective property systems (semi-arid and arid environments).
- Second model:
individual property systems (humid environments).
- Converging
model: property of water held by the state but water rights (i.e.
concessions or permits) held by individuals under certain conditions
(i.e. to avoid externalities of common pool resources)
efficiency
and equity principles
- Efficiency
and equity are basic normative concepts of water resources policy.
- Efficiency
increasingly reduced to economic efficiency (i.e. water should
be put to the most productive use available).
- Equity increasingly
enhanced to include future generations and the non-human world.
- In the water
policy of some countries (i.e. Spain, the western USA), conventional
equity principles have dominated over economic efficiency ones
but this is rapidly changing. Abrupt transitions may create important
social conflict.
ideological
justifications of property
Contrast efficiency and equity with the different justifications of
property rights.
Property
rights can be justified according to a number of legitimate values:
-
Labour theory of property: "People are entitled to whatever they
produce under their own initiative and effort".
-
Liberty
theory of property: "Property is a political and moral right that
becomes and end in itself and should be protected from interference
by others (especially by the state)".
-
Utilitarian
theory of property: "Property that maximizes economic welfare
should be given maximum social priority".
-
Moral/Ethical theories of property: "Property must respect community
values, and the values of the non-human word" ("good stewardship"
concept).
property
institutions and eu water policy
- European
water legislation may imply important redefinitions of water property
rights in the future.
- Redefinitions
of rights may respond to one or more of the ideological justifications
outlined above and can be fought also with these ideological justifications
(i.e. impacts of farmers having to pay the whole cost of water
on farming communities, landscape, cultural heritage, etc.).
- It is important
to incorporate social institutions such as property in agents'
behaviour and understand that this behaviour may have a solid
social logic behind.
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