Institutional Diversity and Political Economy

Elinor Ostrom co-recipient of the 2009 Nobel Prize in economics argues that in studying social order we should not be limited to only the conceptions of order derived from the work of Adam Smith and Thomas Hobbes. To be precise we should not limit ourselves to theoretical frameworks of The State and to theoretical frameworks of The Market. We need approaches that match the extensive variety of institutional arrangements existent in the world. In this book Paul Dragos Aligica discusses some of the most challenging ideas emerging out of the research program on institutional diversity associated with Ostrom and her associates while outlining a set of new research directions and an original interpretation of the significance and future of this program.