Quest to Understand Human Affairs

Vincent Ostrom is the founding director of the Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis and Arthur F. Bentley Professor Emeritus of political science at Indiana University in Bloomington. Barbara Allen is professor of political science at Carleton College.

Vincent Ostrom is one of the most original and powerful minds of our time. His quest to understand human affairs spans an unusually wide range of theoretical and practical concerns and draws creatively on a long tradition of classical thinkers. His unpublished papers in this volume, ably put together and edited by Barbara Allen, were written over the course of four decades but have lost none of their immediacy and authority. They convey strongly the commitment, tenacity and versatility of Ostrom in grappling with fundamental issues in the study of natural resources policy, community and collective and constitutional choice and, more generally, in the practice of research. The volume also conveys Allen's own contribution in making Ostrom's experiences and reflections available to those who wish to better understand the critical questions of our time. The result is a significant and lasting contribution to social and human sciences.

• 1 Preface2 Editor's Intorduction3 Part I. Natural Resources Policy and the Practice of Collective and Constitutional Choice4 1947: Some Western Issues in National Politics5 1948: A Statement [of Resigniation from the University of Wyoming]6 1955-1958: The Alaska Constitution and Natural Resources7 The Constitution of the State of Alaska: Article VIII: Natural Resources8 Clarifying the Meaning of Article VIII: Natural Resources, as Adopted by the Alaska Constitutional Convention, in 19569 Alaska Constitutional Convention: Commentary on Article on State Lands and Natural Resources10 Selected Correspondence Regarding Article VIII11 1956-1958: Resource Administration in Practice: Water Policies and Public Works12 A Water Policy for Tennessee13 Draft Interim Report No. 1 Snake River Study14 1959: Natural Resources and Economic and Institutional Development in Hawaii15 Proceedings of the Hawaii Pre-Legislative Conference, Panel on Land Use: Remarks of Vincent Ostrom on Problems of Public Policies Concerning Land Use16 Organization for Administration of Natural Resources and Economic Development in the Territory of Hawaii: A Survey Report of the Public Administration Service17 1960: Contributions to the Western States' Democratic Conference and the National Democratic Party 1960 Platform and Natural Resources18 1968: Organization of Decision-Making Arrangements and the Development of Atmospheric Resources19 1971: An Alternative Approach to the Design of Public Organizational Arrangements20 Part II: Community and Collective Choice21 1952-1954: Community Studies and Educational Policy: The Kellogg Foundation Northwest Cooperative Program in Educational Administration at the University of Oregon22 A Study of Community Behavior in Policy formation with Special Reference to Education Policies23 Kellogg Project: Research Memorandum on An Approach to the analysis of the Processes of Policy Formation24 An Approach to the Study of Political Behavior in the Local Community25 1957-1958: New Directions in Theory and Method: Studies of the Klamath Indians26 An Additional Note on the Theoretical Orientation of My Current Research27 A Case Study of Termination of Federal Trusteeship Responsibilities in the Klamath Reservation28 Interim Reports on the Klamath [Indian Tribe] Termination [of Tribal Status Policy] Study29 1978: Language, Reason, and Discourse: A Comment on Thomas Sowell's "Institutional Advantage and State Action Concepts"30 1982: The Normative Context of Community31 1982: Institutional Analysis, Policy Analysis, and Performance Evaluation32 1999: The Centrality of Local Institutions in the Constintution of Democracies33 Part III: From Collective Choice to Constitutional Choice34 1975: Political Orders and Public Service Structures35 1979: Public Bureaucracies: Challenges and Responses to New Problems and Public Organization36 1982: Self-Administration and Bureaucratic Administration37 1983: Adam Smith and Public Goods38 1988: Executive Leadership, Authority Relationships, and Public Entrepreneurship39 1988: The Foundations of Institutional Analysis and Development