The quest to understand human affairs / Vincent Ostrom ; edited by Barbara Allen.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Ostrom, Vincent, 1919-2012.

Contributor:

Allen, Barbara, 1953-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Political science--Philosophy.

Political science.

Public administration.

Conservation of natural resources--Government policy.

Conservation of natural resources.

Social choice.

Physical Description:

volumes ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Lanham : Lexington Books, c2011-

Summary:

The second volume of The Quest to Understand Human Affairs presents thirty-six previously unpublished essays written by Vincent Ostrom, cofounder of the Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis. The essays are divided among three parts: "Constitutional Choice," "Epistemic Choice," and "The Quest for Understanding and the Future of Democratic Self-Governance." Part I, "Constitutional Choice," includes studies on public sector performance and the constitutional dilemmas facing the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the North American "New World" of US constitutionalism, and the United States of Mexico. In the essays of part II, Ostrom turns to the foundational ideas on which the institutions of a particular culture rest. He raises questions about the methodologies of the social sciences and insists that we return to "basic questions" in our search for institutional forms that will liberate human communities. Part III offers the reader a colloquy on self-governance in which Ostrom's speeches and presentations on a variety of twenty-first-century issues are supplemented with letters and memos between Ostrom and visiting scholars and students. These remarkable works not only offer specialists insight into developments in the fields of institutional analysis, resource governance, public policy, and public administration-during the second half of the twentieth century and first decade of the new millennium-but also speak to general readers about worldwide transformations in democracies and human and environment relations, and the enduring challenge of sustaining just, productive political orders. The Quest to Understand Human Affairs is introduced with a foreword by Nobel Laureate and cofounder of the Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis, Elinor Ostrom, and with a preface by the editor of the volume, political theorist Barbara Allen. Book jacket.

Contents:

v. 1. Natural resources policy and essays on community and collective choice

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780739126097

0739126091

9780739126103

0739126105

OCLC:

664451066