The Ostroms' research program has a dimension that goes beyond the strict boundaries of political science and economics, crossing into the domain of political philosophy. Bloomington scholars created a framework for analyzing how institutions work and develop that helped them specify and examine...

The article takes as a starting point the notion that there are two ways of approaching the issue of ideas and institutional design from an Ostromian perspective. The first is straightforward: simply follow the explicit arguments developed by them and synthesize the main points made over time...

Simple observation presents two stylized facts that call for integration into a single explanatory framework. One fact is that societies reflect generally though certainly not perfectly coordinated patterns of activity. The other fact is that only a subset of those activities is coordinated with...

Global fish catches in the seas and oceans have stagnated since the mid-1990s. Because there are generally no established property rights in wild fish, fisheries are vulnerable to the ‘tragedy of the commons’. Trawler owners race to catch as many fish as possible before they are caught by...

Elinor Ostrom (1933–2012) influenced fields ranging from institutional analysis to metropolitan service delivery, from federalism and theories of polycentric orders to common-pool resource management and sustainable development. Her seminal book, Governing the Commons: The Evolution of...

The paper explores the potential link between Catholic Social Teaching (CST) and the theoretical developments associated with New Institutional Economics (NIE). The emphasis is put in particular on the contributions of two Nobel Prize winners in economics, Douglass C. North and Elinor Ostrom,...

Comparative economic systems literature deals extensively with ‘systemic functions’ and ‘performance criteria’ such as growth, efficiency and equity but rarely mentions the topic of resilience. This paper focusses on the issue of resilience while drawing several important lessons from...

This unique book develops two different but related research agendas: the study of the spread of ‘neoliberalism’ – as seen from the perspective of Eastern European post-communist evolutions; and the study of Eastern European transition – as seen from an ideas-centred perspective. It...