The top definition of "regulation" on Dictionary.com is "a law, rule, or other order prescribed by authority, esp. to regulate conduct." Notice the phrase "prescribed by authority." This is not the same as "agreed upon by consensus." It may be that in the area that Ostrom works, they use the term differently, but that is the common definition. However, this is most likely arguing semantics.


The fact is that you are still missing the point of this column. He is pointing out that her research supports a free market mechanism over a government controlled mechanism. Your statement that

"her research on how people voluntarily devise rules to deal with common-pool resources is a fundamental challenge to the...

You completely miss the point. Stossel is entirely correct when he says that self-imposed rules are not the same as regulations (i.e. rules imposed by an outside party). That is the point of the whole artilce. The truely free market is not rule-less. It has rules and structure. The point is that those rules are decided upon by the participants in the market, not by some outside party.

When people who use common resources get together and decide the rules and regulations that they will follow when using those resources, they are doing so in their own interest. By coming together and agreeing to limit their use of the resource, they assure that the resource will still be available in the future. People who assume that in a...