Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-b95js Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-12T11:44:32.381Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Co-Production, Polycentricity, and Value Heterogeneity: The Ostroms’ Public Choice Institutionalism Revisited

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 October 2013

PAUL DRAGOS ALIGICA  and
VLAD TARKO
PAUL DRAGOS ALIGICA*
Affiliation:
George Mason University
VLAD TARKO*
Affiliation:
George Mason University
*
Paul Dragos Aligica is Senior Research Fellow, George Mason University, Mercatus Center, 3351 N. Fairfax Dr., Arlington, VA 22201 ([email protected])
Vlad Tarko is a Ph.D. candidate, George Mason University, Department of Economics, 3301 N. Fairfax Dr., Ste. 450, Arlington, VA 22201 ([email protected])
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Revisiting the theory of institutional hybridity and diversity developed by Vincent and Elinor Ostrom to cope with the challenge of the “neither states nor markets” institutional domain, this article reconstructs the Ostromian system along the “value heterogeneity–co-production–polycentricity” axis. It articulates the elements of a theory of value heterogeneity and of the fuzzy boundaries between private and public. It rebuilds the model of co-production, clarifying the ambiguity surrounding a key technical public choice theoretical assumption, and it demonstrates (a) why it should not be confused with the Alchian-Demsetz team production model and (b) how co-production engenders a type of market failure that has been neglected so far. In light of this analysis, the article reconsiders polycentricity, the capstone of the Ostromian system, explaining why polycentricity may be seen as a solution both to this co-production market failure problem and to the problems of social choice in conditions of deep heterogeneity. It also discusses further normative corollaries.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 107 , Issue 4 , November 2013 , pp. 726 - 741
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Alchian, Armen A. 1950. “Uncertainty, Evolution, and Economic Theory.” Journal of Political Economy 58 (3): 211–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Alchian, Armen A., and Demsetz, Harold. (1972). “Production, Information Costs, and Economic Organization.” American Economic Review 62 (5): 777–95.Google Scholar
Aligica, Paul Dragos, and Boettke, Peter. 2009. Challenging Institutional Analysis and Development: The Bloomington School. New York: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Aligica, Paul D., and Boettke, Peter J.. 2011. “The Two Social Philosophies of Ostroms’ Institutionalism.” Policy Studies Journal 39 (1): 29–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Aligica, Paul D., and Tarko, Vlad. 2012. “Polycentricity: From Polanyi to Ostrom, and Beyond.” Governance 25 (2): 237–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anderson, Terry, and Hill, Peter. 2001. The Technology of Property Rights. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.Google Scholar
Andreoni, James. 1990. “Impure Altruism and Donations to Public Goods: A Theory of Warm-Glow Giving.” Economic Journal 100 (401): 464–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baier, Kurt, and Rescher, Nicholas. 1969. Values and the Future: The Impact of Technological Change on American Values. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Boettke, Peter J., Coyne, Christopher J., and Leeson, Peter T.. 2008. “Institutional Stickiness and the New Development Economics.” American Journal of Economics and Sociology 67 (2): 331–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boettke, Peter J., Palagashvili, Liya, and Lemke, Jayme S. 2013. “Riding in Cars with Boys: Elinor Ostrom's Adventures with the Police.” Journal of Institutional Economics. doi:10.1017/S1744137413000118.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boudreaux, Donald J., and Holcombe, Randall G.. 1989. “Government by Contract.” Public Finance Review 17 (3): 264–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bozeman, Barry. 2002. “Public Value Failure: When Efficient Markets May Not Do.” Public Administration Review 62 (2): 145–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bozeman, Barry. 2007. Public Values and Public Interest: Counterbalancing Economic Individualism. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.Google Scholar
Brandsen, Taco, and Pestoff, Victor. 2006. “Co-Production, the Third Sector and the Delivery of Public Services.” Public Management Review 8 (4): 493–501.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brandsen, T, Pestoff, V., and Verschuere, B.. 2012. New Public Governance, the Third Sector and Co-Production. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Buchanan, James M. 1965. “An Economic Theory of Clubs.” Economica 32 (125): 1–14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buchanan, James M. [1968] 1999. The Demand and Supply of Public Goods. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund.Google Scholar
Buchanan, James M., and Tullock, Gordon. [1962] 1999. The Calculus of Consent. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund.Google Scholar
Burnheim, John. 2006. Is Democracy Possible? Sydney: Sydney University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crawford, Sue, and Ostrom, Elinor. 1995. “A Grammar of Institutions.” American Political Science Review 89 (3): 582–600.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dahl, Robert A. 1989. Democracy and Its Critics. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Gaus, Gerald. 2011. The Order of Public Reason: A Theory of Freedom and Morality in a Diverse and Bounded World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Jackson, John E., and King, David C.. 1989. “Public Goods, Private Interests, and Representation.” American Political Science Review 83 (4): 1143–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jehle, Geoffrey A., and Reny, Philip J.. 2011. Advanced Microeconomic Theory, Vol. 3. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.Google Scholar
Jorgensen, Torben Beck, and Bozeman, Barry. 2007. “Public Values: An Inventory.” Administration & Society 39 (3): 354–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Knight, Jack, and Johnson, James. 2011. The Priority of Democracy: Political Consequences of Pragmatism. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Kukathas, Chandran. 1999. The Liberal Archipelago. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Leeson, Peter T. 2011. “Government, Clubs, and Constitutions.” Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization 80 (2): 301–08.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lynn, L. 2006. Public Management: Old and New. New York: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McGinnis, Michael D., ed. 1999. Polycentricity and Local Public Economies: Readings from the Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McGinnis, Michael. 2011. “An Introduction to IAD and the Language of the Ostrom Workshop: A Simple Guide to a Complex Framework.” Policy Studies Journal 39 (1): 163–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McGinnis, Michael D., and Ostrom, Elinor. 2011. “Reflections on Vincent Ostrom, Public Administration, and Polycentricity.” Public Administration Review 72 (1): 15–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miller, Gary J. 1992. Managerial Dilemmas: The Political Economy of Hierarchy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Munger, Michael. 2010. “Endless Forms Most Beautiful and Most Wonderful: Elinor Ostrom and the Diversity of Institutions.” Public Choice 143 (3): 263–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oakerson, Ronald J. 1999. Governing Local Public Economies: Creating the Civic Metropolis. Ithaca, NY: ICS Press,.Google Scholar
Oakerson, Ronald J., and Parks, Roger B.. 2011. “The Study of Local Public Economies: Multi-organizational, Multi-level Institutional Analysis and Development.” Policy Studies Journal 39 (1): 147–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ostrom, Elinor. 1972. “Metropolitan Reform: Propositions Derived from Two Traditions.” Social Science Quarterly 53: 474–93.Google Scholar
Ostrom, Elinor. 1999. “Polycentricity, Complexity, and the Commons.” The Good Society 9 (2): 37–41.Google Scholar
Ostrom, Elinor. 2005. Understanding Institutional Diversity. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Ostrom, Elinor. 2008. “Developing a Method for Analyzing Institutional Change.” In Alternative Institutional Structures: Evolution and Impact, eds Batie, S. and Mercuro, N.. Routledge.Google Scholar
Ostrom, Elinor. 2010. “Beyond Markets and States: Polycentric Governance of Complex Economic Systems.” American Economic Review 100 (3): 641–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ostrom, Elinor, and Ostrom, Vincent. 2004. “The Quest for Meaning in Public Choice.” American Journal of Economics and Sociology 63 (1): 105–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ostrom, Vincent. 1997. The Meaning of Democracy and the Vulnerabilities of Democracies: A Response to Tocqueville's Challenge. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ostrom, Vincent. 1999. “Polycentricity (Part 1 and 2).” In Polycentricity and Local Public Economies, ed. McGinnis, Michael D.. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 52–74 and 119–38.Google Scholar
Ostrom, Vincent, Bish, Robert, and Ostrom, Elinor. 1988. Local Government in the United States. Oakland, CA: ICS Press.Google Scholar
Parks, Roger B., Baker, P. C., Kiser, C., Oakerson, L. L., et al. 1981. “Consumers as Coproducers of Public Services: Some Economic and Institutional Considerations.” Policy Studies Journal 9: 1001–11.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pennington, Mark. 2011. Robust Political Economy: Classical Liberalism and the Future of Public Policy. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar.Google Scholar
Poteete, Amy R., Janssen, Marco A., and Ostrom, Elinor. 2010. Working Together: Collective Action, the Commons, and Multiple Methods in Practice. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rozin, Paul. 1997. “Moralization.” In Morality and Health, eds. Brandt, Allan M. and Rozin, Paul, London: Routledge, 379–402.Google Scholar
Rozin, Paul. 1999. “The Process of Moralization.” Psychological Science 10 (3): 218–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sabetti, Filippo. 2008. “Normative and Empirical Inquiries into Systems of Governance.” In The Struggle to Constitute and Sustain Productive Orders, eds. Sproule-Jones, Mark, Allen, Barbara, and Sabetti, Filippo,. Lanham: Lexington Books, 3–10.Google Scholar
Searle, John. 1995. The Construction of Social Reality. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Searle, John. 2006. “Social Ontology: Some Basic Principles.” Anthropological Theory 6 (1): 12–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Toonen, Theo. 2010. “Resilience in Public Administration: The Work of Elinor and Vincent Ostrom from a Public Administration Perspective.” Public Administration Review 70 (2): 193–202.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wagner, Richard E. 2005. “Self-Governance, Polycentrism, and Federalism: Recurring Themes in Vincent Ostrom's Scholarly Oeuvre.” Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization 57 (2): 173–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Winston, Clifford. 2006. Market Failure vs. Government Failure. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press.Google Scholar
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.