Dominant Social Paradigm:
-
Most widely held set of beliefs, values, and ideals
Guide about thinking of society, governance, and the role of individual.
Organizes the way people perceive and interpret the functioning of the world around
them.
The dominant social paradigm manifests itself in the totality of our institutions.
Institutions:
-
Defined as a set of rules and norms that govern the behavior of individuals and
organizations in the system.
The accepted rules, norms and strategies adopted by individuals operating within or
across organizational settings
For example: Canada’s constitution and political system set up under its term:
 Federalism
 Legislative process
 Rights and responsibilities of citizens
Organization:
- An organized entity/body of people with a particular purpose
- For example: Parliament of Canada
 People:
- Senate and House of Commons
- Personnel (senators, members of parliament, supporting staff)
 Purpose:
- Govern Canada by making laws, setting taxes, and authorizing spending
~ We often say that institutions are the rules of the game and organizations are the players in
these institutions. ~
Key Characteristics:
 Can be formal or informal
Examples of informal/unwritten institutions:
- Informal rules among a group of resource users (fishermen)
- Culturally appropriate behaviour
 Structure policies and influence behavior (set the rules of the game)
 Are not static, they change often
 Are often contested and challenged
 ~ There is the full range from written/formal rules (e.g., constitution) to
unwritten/informal rules (e.g., codes of conduct, norms of behaviour) ~
~ A paradigm shift manifests as the society changes its institutions. ~
Economics:
-
Social science
Describes the factors that drives production, distribution, and consumption of goods
and services
Environmental economics:
-
Sub field of economics that is concerned with environmental issues:
 Market failures
 Measures of prosperity/development
 Ecosystem services
 Economic approaches to sustainability
Free market economy:
an economic system where the prices for goods and services are set by the forces of supply and
demand without any government interventions
- Government doesn’t have any say how cheap or expensive things are
- Companies and products are privately owned, we have competitive markets where
producers and sellers compete for buyers and clients.
Market: a medium that allows buyers and sellers of a specific good or service to interact to
facilitate exchange.
In a free market, the transactions between buyers and sellers are driven by the relationship
between supply and demand.
Requirements for a free market:
-
Large number of buyers and sellers
Perfect info about current and future prices, products
All economic agents behave rationally; producers maximize profits and consumers
maximize satisfaction
Market prices reflect full costs of production and consumption
Inputs being supplied and goods being produced are individually owned and divisible.
Summary:
 The market forces of supply and demand result in the equilibrium price.
 If all economic agents behave rationally/self-motivated, the free market maximizes
the overall societal welfare (aka invisible hand)
 Numerous conditions need to be fulfilled for the free market to work properly
- Ownership of supplies is critical
Ownership of property
To own: to have or hold as one’s own, to belong to one, be the proprietor of, possess.
Natural resources – the problem


Many natural resources do not meet all the ownership conditions
Ownership of these resources can therefore not be clearly defined
Property rights:
1. Private property:
 Owned by individuals or corporations
 Includes land, objects
 Established and controlled by cultural and legal systems
 Access is by permission
 Others must respect owner’s rights
 Strong incentive to manage properly
2. Community owned property (communal regulation)
 Owned by a group of people who have a defined membership
 The members control access and rules for use by communal decision
 Shared incentive for proper management
 Nonmembers must respect the rights of members
 Examples: communal pastures, forests, cooperatives (car co-op)
3. Public/state-owned property (public domain)
 Owned by gov or gov corporation on behalf of citizens; usually in the “public
interest”
 Access is by permission (rules and regulations)
 May be sold or rented to contribute to revenue
 May be given away, sometimes with subsidies
 May include commercial and noncommercial properties.
 Examples: roads, parks
4. Open access (no property rights – unregulated)
 Generally, not owned by anybody
 May be owned by the state but ownership difficult to enforce
 Access is free to all, no one can be excluded
 Resource is not managed by an owner
 “Right of capture” applies
 Examples: north pole, fish stocks
5. Common heritage of humanity
 Should be held in trust for future generations
 Should not be unilaterally exploited by individual states or corporations or other
entities
 Should rather be exploited under some sort of international arrangement or regime
for the benefit of mankind as a whole
 All nations must manage resources on behalf of all
 All nations must actively share with each other the benefits
 Examples: international waters, airspace, culturally important artifacts (pyramids)
Property rights – excludability
1. Private property
Excludable goods and services
2. Community owned property
3. Public-state owned property
4. Open access
non-excludable goods and services
5. Common heritage of humanity
Excludable goods and services are those for which one can at low cost prevent those who have
not paid for the good from consuming it.
Non-excludable goods and services are those for which it is difficult to prevent people from
using them.