User self-governance in a complex policy design for managing water commons in Japan

• Published in: Journal of hydrology (Amsterdam) 2014-03, Vol.510, p.246-258
• Main Authors: Sarker, Ashutosh, Itoh, Tadao, Kada, Ryohei, Abe, Takaki, Nakashima, Masahiro, Herath, Gamini
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Complex policy design; Earth sciences; Earth, ocean, space; Exact sciences and technology; Governments; Hydrology; Hydrology. Hydrogeology; Irrigation; Irrigation institutions; Japan; Natural resources; Ownership; Policies; Polycentricity; Privatization; Self-governance; User autonomy; Water management; Water resources
• ISSN: 0022-1694; 1879-2707
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jhydrol.2013.12.034

•Complex policy design involves state, privatization and user self-governance.•Nonparticipatory state provides financial, technological, and statutory assistance.•Nonparticipatory state provides users with autonomy to self-govern their commons.•Complex policy design strengthens users’ self-governing institutional arrangements. Studies have typically emphasized one of three major policy alternatives—government (state) ownership, privatization, or user self-governance—to address overuse of “the commons” as a natural resource shared by many competing users. Studies tend to focus on each alternative separately. Government ownership or privatization is usually understood to undermine user self-governing institutional arrangements, while user self-governance has proved to be a very powerful policy alternative in managing the commons in many cases. An important research question arises as to whether a complex policy design can strengthen the competence of user self-governing institutional arrangements. This article defines a complex policy design as one that involves a mix of flexible policy alternatives rather than a rigid alternative to address overuse issues. Drawing on Japan’s irrigation water management experience, this study demonstrates that when a complex policy design is tailored to facilitate user autonomy, it further strengthens user self-governance. The study provides scholars with insight into how self-governing institutional arrangements—which were primarily developed in the existing literature with the government’s role assumed as absent or implicit—could be enhanced when the role is strategically explicit.