Private property has become so prevalent in the world that we rarely think about the commons. Most people consider the subway as a public good, it is part of “public transport” after all. But they are unlikely to recognize the space on the subway as a common, the way a community would previously have thought about a shared pasture. The COVID19 crisis is a stark reminder that commons are all around us: A single infected subway rider not wearing a mask could infect dozens of people.

How is that insight useful? Because it means we can look at Elinor Ostrom’s work on how to manage commons as a guide. Here are her 8 principles:

1. Define clear group boundaries.

2. Match rules governing use of common goods to local needs and conditions.

3. Ensure that those affected by the rules can participate in modifying the rules.

4. Make sure the rule-making rights of community members are respected by outside authorities.

5. Develop a system, carried out by community members, for monitoring members’ behavior.

6. Use graduated sanctions for rule violators.

7. Provide accessible, low-cost means for dispute resolution.

8. Build responsibility for governing the common resource in nested tiers from the lowest level up to the entire interconnected system.

All of these are important in their own way. I am particularly interested though in their relation to ideas of privacy and power.

It is immediately clear from #5 that these principles cannot be enforced unless the community can observe members’ behavior, which in many situations will be at direct odds with privacy. For example, how do you get everyone on the subway to wear a mask without some degree of observation? Yes you could try to deputize citizens or spread a lot of observers around but you could also use face recognition technology.

What’s crucial though is the interaction with power. Many of the other principles are about limiting power. For example, according to #3 community members need to be able to participate in modifying the rules. Or according to #8 decisions should be made as local as possible. So for example, New Yorker should have a say in how mask compliance is observed and enforced on the New York subway and this should not be handled by the federal government. And New Yorkers might choose to have the city use facial recognition to observe and fine those not wearing masks.

So what’s the upshot? Communities in order to manage the commons have a right that goes above individual privacy but we need to be careful to pick the lowest possible level of government and adhere to democratic processes in order to avoid excess central power.