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3 books match the query 'Ostrom, Vincent'
The Intellectual Crisis in American Public Administration
Vincent Ostrom
University of Alabama Press, 1989
The Intellectual Crisis in American Public Administration
Vincent Ostrom
University of Alabama Press, 2007
Rethinking governance: Where democracy meets administration.
This revised and expanded third edition extends Ostrom’s analysis to account for the most resent developments in American politics, including those of the Clinton and Bush administrations.
First published in 1973, The Intellectual Crisis in American Public Administration remains one of the most influential critiques of the administrative state. Vincent Ostrom examines the intellectual roots of American public administration, questioning whether centralized bureaucratic systems align with the constitutional principles of self-governance. Through a rigorous analysis of institutional design, federalism, and public choice theory, Ostrom advocates for polycentric governance—an approach that empowers citizens and decentralizes authority. This seminal work continues to inspire debates on accountability, legitimacy, and the future of democratic administration.
The Meaning of Democracy and the Vulnerabilities of Democracies
A Response to Tocqueville's ChallengeVincent Ostrom
University of Michigan Press, 1997
Arguing that democratic systems are characterized by self-governing--not state- governed--societies, Ostrom contends that the nature and strength of individual relationships and self-organizing behavior are critical to the creation and survival of a democratic political system. Ostrom begins with a basic contradiction identified by Alexis de Tocqueville. De Tocqueville suggested that if citizens acted on the basis of their natural inclinations they would expect government to provide for them and take care of their needs. Yet these conditions contradict what it means to be self-governing. Ostrom explores the social and cultural context necessary for a democratic system to flourish emphasizing the important role of ideas and the use of language in defining and understanding political life. Discussing differences in the ideas about social organization among various cultural and intellectual traditions, he considers the difficulties encountered over time in building democratic societies in America, Asia, Europe, and Africa. He outlines lessons from these experiences for the efforts to build democracy in the developing world and the countries emerging from communism.
Based on a lifetime of thinking about the social conditions necessary to support a democracy, this book makes a significant contribution to the recent discussion about civil society and the fragility of our formal and informal social institutions and will be of interest to social scientists, historians and all readers concerned with the state of democracy in the modern world.
Vincent Ostrom is Arthur F. Bentley Professor of Political Science Emeritus and Co-Director of the Workshop on Political Theory and Policy Analysis, Indiana University. He is the author of many works on political theory and public administration.