Exploring Ostrom’s approach to property rights and institutions is fundamental to any effort aimed at “reconsidering property” by discussing the existing “alternative conceptualizations”. Beyond the fact that Ostrom was the first to introduce a conceptualization of common property based on the notion of bundle of rights, a crucial point is her rejection of the “a-temporal and a-historical perspective” of Alchian and Demsetz’s theory of property right. Ostrom explicitly affirms the political dimension of any system of property rights or rules. By political dimension, one must understand the rejection of any spontaneous, natural and individualist approach to property in favour of a view in terms of a system of rules that cannot be separated from a permanent collective action and deliberation and in terms of property rights as social relationships. The aim of this article is to highlight the contributions and limitations of Ostrom’s approach to the understanding of the political dimension of property rights and institutions. Having briefly set out the research program, the foundations, the conceptual tools and the major results of this approach, I emphasize its three contributions : (1) the overcoming of the naturalistic bias in Samuelson’s taxonomy of goods by the recognition of the social and political attributes of the notion of rivalry and exclusion ; (2) the understanding of markets as diverse, complex and institutional construction in which collective action, law and political deliberation are present at all stages, even at the level of the definition and delimitation of the object of exchange ; (3) the reflexivity of appropriators or users of common-pool resources when they have to shape and apply a system of rules. The limitations of Ostrom’s approach to property and institutions concern the absence of any clear account of the nature of this political dimension. This is explained by the absence of a theory of institutional change in Ostrom’s approach. It is only recently that this approach has started to deal with this issue. I show that the account of institutional change already provided is purely empirical and do not address the controversy that this issue has stimulated in several social sciences. This evasive approach to institutional change results in a weak historical view of the evolution of property rights and it undermines the ability to shape a theory that take into account the structural factors – asymmetries of power, inequality, etc. – that drive the relationships that humans have with the environment.
Cet article entend mettre en lumière les apports et les limites de l’approche d’Ostrom pour appréhender la dimension politique de la propriété et des institutions. Il s’agit de montrer que si Ostrom ouvre l’espace et fournit les catégories nécessaires pour saisir la propriété et les marchés comme des constructions sociales et politiques, l’absence d’une théorie du changement institutionnel rend son approche assez inopérante pour traiter de la nature des processus politiques qui déterminent la sélection et l’évolution des régimes de propriété et des systèmes de règles constitutifs des dynamiques marchandes et de la gouvernance des ressources naturelles.
