This volume brings a set of key works by Elinor Ostrom, co-recipient of the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, together with those of Vincent Ostrom, one of the originators of Public Choice political economy. The two scholars introduce and expound their approaches and analytical perspectives on the study of institutions and governance.
The book puts together works representing the main analytical and conceptual vehicles articulated by the Ostroms to create the Bloomington School of public choice and institutional theory. Their endeavours sought to ‘re-establish the priority of theory over data collection and analysis’, and to better integrate theory and practice.
These efforts are illustrated via selected texts, organised around three themes: the political economy and public choice roots of their work in creating a distinct branch of political economy; the evolutionary nature of their work that led them to go beyond mainstream public choice, thereby enriching the public choice tradition itself; and, finally, the foundational and epistemological dimensions and implications of their work.
‘This is a wonderful collection of the writings of two of our most distinguished colleagues in political science. Lin and Vince Ostrom have been an inspiration to many of us. While they will be missed, they will also be remembered, in no small measure because of their voluminous research corpus ? a portion of which is collected here.’
Kenneth A Shepsle
George Markham Professor of Government, Harvard University
'Vincent and Elinor Ostrom are monumental pioneers in political theory and modern institutional analysis. They addressed politics, governance and metropolitan public service delivery from an authentic, transformative perspective. Complexity and the emergence of self-governing systems commanded their attention long before these became topical issues in current political science, public administration and policy analysis. This unique volume provides an intelligently crafted and knowledgeable selection of celebrated articles and impactful essays. It represents a systematic insight into the foundations and development of the conceptual and methodological underpinnings of a Nobel Prize-winning body of knowledge. It does full justice to two people who devoted their entire life to advance the study and understanding of sustained democratic governance without state and perhaps even without nation.'
Theo Toonen
Dean of the Faculty of Technology, Policy and Management
Chair in Institutional Governance
Delft University of Technology
'The Ostroms’ ‘polycentric’ view of public choice theory is expounded here by skilful juxtaposition of empirical and conceptual papers on the subject. I have read each of them before, but considering them together for the first time brought into sharp focus the theoretical and conceptual foundations for the Ostroms’ overall body of work. Elinor and Vincent’s vision is breathtaking in its scope, and the powerful expressions of it collected in this volume will inspire new generations of institutional analysts for many years to come.'
Michael D McGinnis
Professor of Political Science
Senior Research Fellow
Former Director, The Vincent and Elinor Ostrom Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis
This is a wonderful collection of the writings of two of our most distinguished colleagues in political science. Lin and Vince Ostrom have been an inspiration to many of us. While they will be missed, they will also be remembered, in no small measure because of their voluminous research corpus a portion of which is collected here. -- Kenneth A Shepsle, Harvard University
Vincent and Elinor Ostrom are monumental pioneers in political theory and modern institutional analysis. They addressed politics, governance and metropolitan public service delivery from an authentic, transformative perspective. Complexity and the emergence of self-governing systems commanded their attention long before these became topical issues in current political science, public administration and policy analysis. This unique volume provides an intelligently crafted and knowledgeable selection of celebrated articles and impactful essays. It represents a systematic insight into the foundations and development of the conceptual and methodological underpinnings of a Nobel Prize-winning body of knowledge. It does full justice to two people who devoted their entire life to advance the study and understanding of sustained democratic governance without state and perhaps even without nation. -- Theo Toonen, Delft University of Technology
The Ostroms' 'polycentric' view of public choice theory is expounded here by skilful juxtaposition of empirical and conceptual papers on the subject. I have read each of them before, but considering them together for the first time brought into sharp focus the theoretical and conceptual foundations for the Ostroms' overall body of work. Elinor and Vincent's vision is breathtaking in its scope, and the powerful expressions of it collected in this volume will inspire new generations of institutional analysts for many years to come. -- Michael D McGinnis, The Vincent and Elinor Ostrom Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis
Elinor Ostrom (1933–2012) received many high honors in her long and productive career, including a Nobel Prize. But perhaps her greatest legacy will be through the hundreds of students, researchers, and colleagues who learned from and were inspired by her.
She was Distinguished Professor and Arthur F. Bentley Professor of Political Science in the College of Arts and Sciences, and professor in the School of Public and Environmental Affairs. She was founding director and senior research director of The Vincent and Elinor Ostrom Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis.
She is the only woman to receive the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, which she shared with Oliver Williamson in 2009. The Nobel committee awarded her the prize 'for her analysis of economic governance, especially the commons.'
Ostrom was known for her remarkable energy and appetite for work, her down-to-earth manner, and her strong loyalty to students and colleagues.
Born August 7, 1933, she worked her way through college and earned a PhD in political science from UCLA, despite being warned that women were unlikely to work in academia. After becoming a faculty member at the University of Indiana, Bloomington in 1965, she conducted research on topics ranging from urban police departments to groundwater basins, irrigation systems, pasture lands, forests, and fisheries.
In her book Governing the Commons and in many other publications, she demonstrated that groups can effectively manage resources without resorting to government control or private ownership. Elinor and Vincent Ostrom received the University Medal, the highest award bestowed by Indiana University, in 2010.
Elinor Ostrom was named in Time magazine’s list of the world’s 100 most influential people in April 2012.
Vincent Alfred Ostrom (1919–2012) was an internationally acclaimed scholar of democratic governance, whose work combined theory and practice, and yielded important insights about the management of natural resources, cities and villages, and international institutions.
He was also a highly regarded teacher who, with his wife Elinor Ostrom, nurtured the network of collaborative, transdisciplinary scholars, faculty colleagues, and graduate students known as the Bloomington School.
Vincent Ostrom was the Arthur F Bentley Professor Emeritus of Political Science in the College of Arts and Sciences. He was co-director of The Vincent and Elinor Ostrom Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis until his retirement in 2003.
He was a pioneer of the 'polycentric' approach to government — the idea that overlapping, concurrent decision making can make for the best choices in public economies. He was also among the founders of public choice theory, but soon came to disagree with some of its basic premises, leading to the creation of what has become known as the 'Bloomington School of Political-Economy,' which combines public choice theory with polycentrism and a strong measure of empiricism.
He helped draft Article VIII of the Alaska Constitution, which enshrined the idea that the people of Alaska would own the state’s natural resources.
Born September 25, 1919, in Nooksack, Washington, he attended Los Angeles City College and earned a BA, MA, and PhD from UCLA. He worked as a high school teacher; a professor at the University of Wyoming, the University of Oregon, and UCLA; and a resource associate at Resources for the Future.
He came to Indiana University Bloomington as a professor of political science in 1965; eight years later, he and Elinor Ostrom founded the Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis. He received the American Political Science Association’s John Gaus Distinguished Lecturer Award, the Daniel Elazar Distinguished Scholar Award, IU’s University Medal and the Herman B Wells Visionary Award; the latter two were presented jointly to Vincent and Elinor Ostrom in 2010.
Paul Dragos Aligica is a senior research fellow at the FA Hayek Program for Advanced Study in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University in Virginia, where he teaches in the graduate programme of the Economics Department. He specialises in institutional theory and governance studies. Dr Aligica has authored five books including Institutional Diversity and Political Economy: The Ostroms and Beyond (Oxford University Press 2014) and written for a wide variety of academic journals, including American Political Science Review, Governance, Revue française d’économie, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, and Public Choice.
Filippo Sabetti is professor of political science at McGill University, Montreal. He is also Senior Research Fellow at the Vincent and Elinor Ostrom Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis, Indiana University. He specialises in the study of institutions for collective action in the fields of comparative and Canadian politics. Professor Sabetti is the author of many scholarly publications, and his most recent book is Civilization and Self-Government: The Political Thought of Carlo Cattaneo (Lexington Books, 2010, 2013). Later in 2014 he is publishing, with Bruce Haddock, the first English-language edition of Vincenzo Cuoco’s classic 1800 study Historical Essay on the Neapolitan Revolution of 1799 (University of Toronto Press).
