Challenging Institutional Analysis and Development

The Bloomington School has become one of the most dynamic, well recognized and productive centers of the New Institutional Theory movement. Its ascendancy is considered to be the result of a unique and extremely successful combination of interdisciplinary theoretical approaches and hard-nosed empiricism. This book demonstrates that the well-known interdisciplinary and empirical agenda of Bloomington research program is the result of a less-known but very bold proposition: an attempt to revitalize and extend into the new millennium a traditional mode of analysis illustrated by authors like Locke, Montesquieu, Hume, Adam Smith, Hamilton, Madison and Tocqueville. As such, the School tries to synthesize the traditional perspectives with the contemporary developments in social sciences and, thus, to re-ignite the old approach in the new intellectual and political context of the 20th century. The book presents an outline and a systematic analysis of the vision behind the Bloomington Research Program in Institutional Analysis and Development, explaining its basic assumptions, its main themes as well as the foundational philosophy that frames its research questions and theoretical and methodological approaches. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of social science, especially those in the fields of economics, political sciences, sociology and public administration.

ISBN 0415778212   Pages 184 ISBN13 9780415778213 (What's this?)   Weight (grammes) 318 Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd   Published in London Imprint Routledge   Height (mm) 234 Format Paperback   Width (mm) 156 Publication date 22 May 2009   Spine width (mm) 10 DEWEY 300.1   Academic level Postgraduate DEWEY edition DC22   Alternative ISBN 9786612151477

		Introduction		1
Pt. I		From metropolitan reform to a theory of governance systems: the origins and main themes of the Bloomington research program		5
1		Political economy, polycentricity and the metropolitan reform debate		7
2		Crossing the great divide: The nature of public economies		30
Pt. II		The "human condition" and the foundations of social order: elements of a social philosophy of institutionalism		53
3		Knowledge and institutions: developing a social philosophy of institutional order and change		55
4		Ideas, language and meaning: an unorthodox approach to institutional order and institutional analysis		76
Pt. III		The Bloomington School in its intellectual context: a family of themes and schools of thought		99
5		Competing disciplines, methodological divides and emerging research agendas: the Bloomington School in its interdisciplinary setting		101
6		Public policy analysis, Public Choice and the old "new science of politics"		116
		Conclusions: a science of association, a science of citizenship, a science of liberty		137
		Postscript: rethinking institutional analysis and development. Dialogues with Vincent and Elinor Ostrom		142
		Bibliography		160
		Index		167

Aligica and Boettke's book provides a systematic account of the roots and contributions of the Bloomington School, one of the most insightful research programs in institutional analysis, whose results are more pertinent than ever on the face of the current drive for statist solutions to the economic crisis. Benito Arrunada, Pompeu Fabra University, Spain Paul Aligica and Peter Boettke have done an outstanding job of describing the spirit and the reality of several decades of theoretical and empirical research on institutional analysis. They have successfully captured how words express ideas and the language of human development. Generations of future scholars will appreciate reading this book! Elinor Ostrom and Vincent Ostrom, Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis, Indiana University, USA

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