Reinventing Property Rights

Private property rights, as currently constituted, can be a source of economic growth. They can also contribute to inequalities in wealth and power and prove a major deterrent to adequate protection of the earth and its species. The puzzle is how to create a property regime that supports human thriving, freedom, and dignity better than the current arrangements and without significant costs for people, the planet, and biodiversity. Given that property is a social construct and can be transformed, this project begins the process of reinventing property rights by going beyond dominant and largely Western theories of property and drawing on a wide range of cultures and experiments, both historical and contemporary.

Margaret Levi is a Professor of Political Science and Senior Fellow at the Center for Democracy, Development and Rule of Law (CDDRL) at the Freeman Spogli Institute (FSI) at Stanford University. Levi is currently a faculty fellow at CASBS and Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment, co-director of the Stanford Ethics, Society and Technology Hub, and the Jere L Bacharach Professor Emerita of International Studies at the University of Washington. She is the winner of the 2019 Johan Skytte Prize and the 2020 Falling Walls Breakthrough. Levi is the author or coauthor of numerous articles and six books.

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