Elinor Ostrom and the Bloomington School of Political Econom

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 (mostnotably including her husband and partner, Vincent), supplemented by others expandingon 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. Itencapsulates 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.

Elinor Ostrom and the Bloomington School of Political Economy is a comprehensive collection, in four volumes, of the most important contributions by Ostrom and her colleagues on central issues across the social sciences.

PART III: A NEW VISION FOR PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION7 Public Choice: A Different Approach to the Study of PublicAdministration 165Vincent Ostrom and Elinor Ostrom8 Alternative Approaches to the Organization of PublicProprietary Interests 189Vincent Ostrom9 Executive Leadership, Authority Relationships, andPublic Entrepreneurship 217Vincent Ostrom10 Artisanship and Artifact 233Vincent Ostrom11 Refl ections on Vincent Ostrom, Public Administration, andPolycentricity 251Michael D. McGinnis and Elinor OstromPART IV: LESSONS FOR THE STUDY AND PRACTICEOF POLITICS12 Elinor Ostrom: Politics as Problem-Solving in PolycentricSettings 281Michael D. McGinnis13 Converting Threats into Opportunities 307Elinor Ostrom14 A Frequently Overlooked Precondition of Democracy:Citizens Knowledgeable about and Engaged inCollective Action 337Elinor OstromIndex 353Contributors 000