Institutional change and collective action: The case of reclamation systems in Northwest Poland

Christian Schleyer

IAMO Forum 2010: Institutions in Transition – Challenges for New Modes of Governance from Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Central and Eastern Europe (IAMO)

Abstract: This paper examines two drastic changes in the performance of local water associations in providing local public goods - appropriate levels of water table - in the reclamation system in the Powiat Pyrzyce in the Voivodship Zachodniopomorski in northwest Poland. Employing an institutional economics approach shows the results of processes of revalorisation of the interrelated property objects land and reclamation infrastructure that have been triggered and shaped not only by the drastic political, economic and administrative changes after the breakdown of the socialist regime in Poland in 1990, but also by the prospect of joining the European Union and the proactive leadership of the director of the Powiat Department of Environmental Protection, Forestry and Agriculture. More precisely, both processes - the discontinuation (from 1990 onwards) and revival (from 2002 onwards) of the local water associations - were mainly determined by changing market conditions together with variances in the ability of state authorities to effectively control and facilitate these associations. Further, the delay in overcoming the period of collective inaction was fostered by the time-delayed and cumulative effects of neglecting the cleaning and the maintenance of secondary ditches.

Keywords: Collective action; institutional change; reclamation systems (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H41 P32 Q15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/52706/1/676469531.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:iamo10:52706

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in IAMO Forum 2010: Institutions in Transition – Challenges for New Modes of Governance from Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Central and Eastern Europe (IAMO) Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics ().