UGC NET Questions (Paper – 1)

The phrase “tragedy of the commons” describes how rational actions by individuals using a shared resource can collectively lead to its collapse. A common pasture used by many herders is the classic example. The stem explicitly refers to overexploitation of a shared pasture,which matches the commons situation. Therefore “commons” is the correct word to fill the blank.

Option A:
The village is a social unit that may include both private and common resources. Overuse is not inevitable for everything in the village,so this term is too broad and does not capture the resource focus.

Option B:
Farmers are the users but they are not the resource being degraded. The tragedy arises from how they interact with the commons,so naming the users does not complete the conceptual phrase.

Option C:
Commons refers to resources that are rivalrous but difficult to exclude people from,such as grazing lands, fisheries and groundwater. This aligns perfectly with the shared pasture described in the question.

Option D:
Soil is one component of the pasture that may degrade,but the established term in environmental economics and politics is “tragedy of the commons,”not tragedy of the soil.

The tragedy of the commons describes how unregulated access to a shared resource can lead to over exploitation, even when it is against everyone’s long term interest. The classic example is herders grazing more animals on a common pasture until it is degraded. Since the resource is common to all, the phenomenon is called the tragedy of the commons. Therefore commons is the correct completion.

Option A:
The market refers to systems of voluntary exchange and prices. While market failures can contribute to resource overuse, the specific phrase coined by Garrett Hardin concerns common property resources,not markets in general.

Option B:
Commons are resources accessible to all or many members of a community, such as grazing lands, fisheries or groundwater. When no effective governance exists, individuals may overuse them,creating the tragedy described in the question. This logic matches the stem exactly.

Option C:
The state denotes governmental institutions and public authority. Although state management can sometimes prevent tragedies of the commons, the concept itself is not called the tragedy of the state.

Option D:
The firm is a business organisation whose internal decisions about resource use are typically hierarchical. Overuse of shared resources occurs between firms or individuals using commons,not within a single firm,so this term is inappropriate.

In open-access situations, no user can be effectively excluded and there are few rules limiting extraction. Each individual gains from using a bit more, but the costs of overuse are shared by all. This incentive structure leads to excessive exploitation, eventually degrading the resource base. The tragedy arises because individually rational behaviour produces a collectively irrational outcome.

Option A:
Option A is incorrect because nature alone cannot ensure conservation when human extraction is uncontrolled.

Option B:
Option B is correct as it summarises how unregulated open access combined with self-interest leads to depletion and quality decline.

Option C:
Option C is incorrect since state protection is only one possible response and is often introduced to avoid, not cause, the tragedy.

Option D:
Option D is incorrect; in reality, many commons decline without appropriate governance, so conditions do change, often for the worse.