Constitution of Good Societies

Karol Edward Soltan is Associate Professor of Government and Politics at the University of Maryland at College Park. He is the author of The Causal Theory of Justice (1987). Stephen L. Elkin is Professor of Government and Politics at the University of Maryland at College Park. He is the author of City and Regime in the American Republic (1987). Together they co-edited The New Constitutionalism (1993).

• Contents Introduction: Imagination, Political Competence, and Institutions / Karol Edward SoltanPart I Human Capabilities and Institutional Design1. Covenants, Collective Action, and Common-Pool Resources / Elinor Ostrom2. Constitutional Choice, Rational Ignorance, and the Limits of 3. Reason / Viktor J. Vanberg and James M. Buchanan4. From Irrationality to Autonomy: Two Sciences of Institutional Design / John S. Dryzek5. Institution Building and Human Nature / Karol Edward SoltanPart II Conceptions of the Good Society6. How to Make a Good Society / Charles W. Anderson7. The Constitution of a Good Society: The Case of the Commercial Republic / Stephen L. Elkin8. Speculative Theory and Regime Alternatives: Beyond Socialism and Capitalism / Gar Alperovitz9. The Political Institutions of the Good Society / Philip GreenConclusion: Judging the Good Society / Stephen L. ElkinIndexContributors

“The book’s essays. . . . constitute a serious inquiry into the foundations of political reconstruction. In the spirit of James Madison, they are written for the serious citizen with the expectation that this may include both political scientists and policymakers.”—Ron Christenson Perspectives on Political Science