Daniel W. Bromley, an economist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has a recent paper entitled: “Crafting Environmental Policy in the Teeth of Possessive Individualism: Whose Land is It?

The abstract is:

Whether focused on the Endangered Species Act, a developer’s plans for a shopping mall on wetlands, or the desire of a city council to influence the nature and content of its urban space, land is the locus of the struggle between possessive individualism and the larger political interest in how our shared landscapes shall evolve. Those who celebrate the alleged sanctity of “property rights” and so-called “free-market environmentalism” are quite sure that they hold the trump card in this fight. In contrast, those who see the legal foundations of capitalism as an evolutionary process will insist that time is on their side. I argue here that the evolutionary view is the more plausible one to believe. In short, possessive individualism is a losing strategy with respect to land.

Learn about Professor Bromley at his his web site or go directly to his paper.