Elinor Ostrom and the Bloomington School of Political Economy: Polycentricity in Public Administration and Political Science

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Elinor (Lin) Ostrom was awarded the 2009 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for her pathbreaking research on "economic governance, especially the commons"; but she also made important contributions to several other fields of political economy and public policy. The range of topics she covered and the multiple methods she used might convey the mistaken impression that her body of work is disjointed and incoherent. This four-volume compendium of papers written by Lin, alone or with various coauthors (most notably including her husband and partner, Vincent), supplemented by others expanding on their work, brings together the common strands of research that serve to tie her impressive oeuvre together. That oeuvre, together with Vincent's own impressive body of work, has come to define a distinctive school of political-economic thought, the "Bloomington School." Each of the four volumes is organized around a central theme of Lin's work. Volume 1 explores the roles played by the concept polycentricity in the disciplines of public administration, political science, and other forms of political economy. Polycentricity denotes a complex system of governance in which public authorities, citizens, and private organizations work together to establish and enforce the rules that guide their behavior. It encapsulates an approach toward policy analysis that blurs standard disciplinary boundaries between the social sciences. Throughout their long and remarkably productive careers, Elinor and Vincent Ostrom never tired of reminding us of the capacity of ordinary humans to transcend their own limitations by engaging with others in the myriad forms of collective action required to build and sustain a self-governing society. Their careers stand as exemplars of the proper relationship between rigorous scholarship and responsible citizenship.

Reviews

Cole and McGinnis have assembled some of the key works by Vincent and Elinor Ostrom on the interactions among agents and political, economic, and legal institutions to provide local public goods. Their scholarship has changed the way in which we think about local collective action and its ability to address major resource issues. Cole and McGinnis are uniquely qualified to assemble this compendium because of their long-standing interaction as close colleagues of the Ostroms in the development of the Bloomington School of Political Economy. -- Gary Libecap, University of California, Santa Barbara
Anyone who wonders why Elinor Ostrom received the Nobel Economic Sciences Prize need only read this book to stop wondering. -- Thomas C. Schelling, University of Maryland

Author Bio

DANIEL H. COLE is professor of law and professor of public and environmental affairs at Indiana University Bloomington, where he also serves on the affiliated faculty of the Vincent and Elinor Ostrom Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis. MICHAEL D. MCGINNIS is professor of political science at Indiana University Bloomington. He is a senior research fellow (and former director) of the Vincent and Elinor Ostrom Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis.