The Village Against the Center: Resource Depletion in South Asia

Abstract

We are interested in the institutional environment that defines the resource-use behavior of villagers in South Asia. It is that environment-consisting of the conventions, norms, and rules-that dictates daily behavior with respect to the natural resource base on which villagers are so dependent. Our title emphasizes tension between the village level and the center. It is our hypothesis that this tension has been ignored in much of the literature on development in general and particularly in that literature concerned with the role of natural resources in economic development.