The Practice of Constitutional Development
Vincent Ostrom's Quest to Understand Human Affairs
Contributions by William Blomquist, Donald Lutz, Ronald J. Oakerson, Vincent Ostrom, Roger B. Parks, Filippo Sabetti, Audun Sandberg, Edella Schlager, James S. Wunsch Edited by Filippo Sabetti, Barbara Allen, Mark Sproule-Jones
Not available to order
Publication date:
16 December 2008Length of book:
272 pagesPublisher
Lexington BooksISBN-13: 9781461634454
This edited collection further expands our knowledge about what comprises a successful constitution in both theory and application. Building on the research and analysis of Vincent Ostrom, who as one of America's leading scholars on constitutions has spent a lifetime writing about constitutions in America and overseas. Each essay shows how particular countries, governments, and organizations devise constitutions to reflect their visions of governance and sets of rules for their leaders. On a higher theoretical level, the contributors emphasize the importance of choosing the rules of the political game in order to determine the nature of the game itself. Extending Ostrom's intellectual quest to solve constitutional dilemmas, the scholars gathered here discuss a wide variety of issues, ranging from the problems of water scarcity and local public economies in Africa to the prospect of a new political order in the European North.
Vincent Ostrom repeatedly provides the intellectual foundation and experience-based judgment to give governance practiioners useful insights on a range of institutional and economic concerns, from water allocation to the organization of municipal services. As someone who works at the brushfire level, Ostrom's work forces me to stand back and ask the basic questions identified within this work when approaching an institution's capacity and performance