Vincent Ostrom’s revolutionary science of association

Michael Fotos ()

Public Choice, 2015, vol. 163, issue 1, 67-83

Abstract: Vincent Ostrom challenged epistemic choices at the foundation of modern political science and proposed an alternative conceptualization of democracy based on a theory of federalism he derived from The Federalist and Tocqueville’s Democracy in America. This essay examines Vincent Ostrom’s critique of contemporary mainstream political theorizing, relates his original theoretical work to the empirical research Elinor Ostrom, other colleagues, and he conducted, advised, or sponsored at The Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis Indiana University, and concludes that “Ostrom’s democratic alternative” constitutes an alternative scientific paradigm as defined by Thomas Kuhn. The paper concludes with a comment on the continuing relevance of Ostrom’s critique in the post-9/11 era. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media New York 2015

Keywords: Vincent Ostrom; Elinor Ostrom; Polycentricity; Political theory and policy analysis; Federalism; Scientific paradigm; Epistemology of policy analysis; Indiana workshop; Public choice theory; Public administration theory; History of the public choice society; Democratic administration; Bloomington school (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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DOI: 10.1007/s11127-015-0235-1

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