Challenging Institutional Analysis and Development

Paul Dragos Aligica is a Senior Fellow at the Mercatus Center and a Faculty Fellow at the James Buchanan Center at George Mason University, USA. Peter J. Boetkke is the BB&T Professor for the Study of Capitalism at the Mercatus Center, and a University Professor of Economics at George Mason University, USA.

• Introduction Part 1: From Metropolitan Reform to a Theory of Governance Systems: The Origins and Main Themes of the Bloomington Research Program 1. Political Economy, Polycentricity and the Metropolitan Reform Debate 2. Crossing the Great Divide: The Nature of Public Economies Part 2: The "Human Condition" and the Foundations of Social Order: Elements of a Social Philosophy of Institutionalism 3. Knowledge and Institutions: Developing a Social Philosophy of Institutional Order and Change 4. Ideas, Language and Meaning: Ontological and Epistemological Foundations of Institutional Order and Institutional Analysis Part 3: The Bloomington School in its Intellectual Context: A Family of Themes and Schools of Thought 5. Competing Disciplines, Methodological Divides and Emerging Research Agendas: The Bloomington School in its Interdisciplinary Setting 6. Public Policy Analysis, Public Choice and the Old "New Science of Politics" Conclusions: A Science of Association, a Science of Citizenship, a Science of Liberty. Postscript: Rethinking Institutional Analysis and Development. Dialogues with Vincent and Elinor Ostrom

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 Arruñada, Pompeu Fabra University, SpainPaul 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, USAThis book is a marvellous piece of work on the nature of social sciences, the disciplinary boundaries between economics, political science and sociology, and the relationship between theory and practice in contemporary research. Filippo Sabetti, McGill University, USA