"The Board of Trustees and Rhodes College bestow upon Elinor Ostrom this A ward in recognition of your distinguished career as a scholar, outstanding teacher and leader in the social sciences; for your highly acclaimed effort in the study of political economy theory and policy analysis; for your profound study of the extent and nature of common pool resources and your exploration of the variety of social institutions that have evolved for their control; for your achievements in the resolution of institutional behavior; for your exploration and evaluation of the rational choice theory; and, for your erudite guidance inspiring others to contribute to the broader political and economic knowledge of your chosen field."

Way to go, Lin!

THANKS!

As year-end approaches. we gratefully acknowledge those organizations that fund our myriad activities including:

· Bradley Foundation
· Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
· Ford Foundation
· MacArthur Foundation
· National Science Foundation
· Indiana University

And a very special thanks to all those colleagues who have contributed to the Tocqueville Endowment and the Newsletter Fund.

Canada’s Hamilton Harbour

Dr. Mark Sproule-Jones, a long-time Workshop colleague at McMaster University in Canada, recently completed a four-year, groundbreaking interdisciplinary research collaboration for studying ecosystems. As co-principal investigator of the McMaster Eco-Research Program for Hamilton Harbour (the Ecowise project), he and Dr. Bradley White brought together 35 faculty researchers and over 50 graduate students to collectively analyze the Hamilton. Harbour ecosystem as it went through a series of fundamental changes.

Hamilton Harbour is an embayment with a watershed at the head of Lake Ontario in the Great Lakes that is being restored after serious degradation. The Eco wise project focused on understanding important physical, social, and institutional arrangements in .the ecosystem as well as providing useful input to the policymaking process.

Ecowise investigators report that the project has had Wide success beyond its research goals. Many stakeholder groups were influenced by Ecowise ouput and advice. Ecowise investigators h&d direct input to management and policy decisions. Research findings have been disseminated on an international scale. Finally, the researchers found themselves changed, broadening their research orientations towards systemic environmental analyses. Others incorporated the Eco wise approach into their ongoing search programs. And, the collaboration reduced the barriers to interdisciplinary work on the McMaster campus.

More information about this research program and results is available on the Internet at:

http://www.mcmaster.ca/ecowise

In the Stacks in Kampala

As part of a sabbatical project to investigate ways to improve the flow of environmental research "information between developing and developed countries, Charlotte Hess, Workshop Librarian, traveled to Kampala, Uganda, this fall. Funding for this part of her project was provided by the Makerere University (MUK) Forestry Department, the IU Office of International Programs, and the IU Librarians’ Association.

Using the International Forestry Resources and Institutions (IFRI) Collaborating Research Center (CRC) in Uganda as a case study, Charlotte’s investigation thus far reveals complex issues of information equity, requirements for reciprocal arrangements in collaborative endeavors and information exchange, and the corresponding relationship between self-governance mechanisms in the provision and distribution of information resources. During a three-week site visit she worked with IFRI researcher, Joseph Bahati, to install and custom-design an online lib.library catalog for the new MUK Forestry Library. The Workshop donated computer software, books, articles, and papers to the new library. Hess and Bahati also met with several other local librarians, information specialists, and environmental researchers to discuss issues of improved communication and information and resource sharing.

While much of the development literature focuses on strategies to improve access to information in developing countries in Africa, Charlotte argues that deeper benefits reside in using foreign aid as a tool to develop new types of local research libraries in which networks of librarians and researchers collaborate on collection and distribution of local scholarly information. In her view, African scholars have a great deal to contribute to the global pool of environmental knowledge if dilemmas involving trust, poverty, and security are adequately addressed.

At Large

Vincent Ostrom reports that the occasion of the International Political Science Association (IPSA) meeting in Seoul provided an exciting opportunity for him and Lin to visit the People’s Republic of China (PRC) for the first time and to see a great deal of Korea.

"In the PRC, our first stop was Hangzhou. There we had an opportunity to meet with several groups of faculty and students at Hangzhou University, arranged by Professor Yu Xunda, Chairman of the Department of Political Science and Public Administration. Professor Xunda spent the 1996-97 academic year at the Workshop in Bloomington.

Hangzhou is a beautiful city with many cultural centers and facilities surrounding West Lake. The high point of our visit was an opportunity to visit Hang-Mm Village, a former peasant village that has become an industrial village centered around the production of dyes and textile manufacturing with related infrastructure, including water wore and a major power plant. Villages have assumed an extraordinary entrepreneurship in the development of China. The success of these village enterprises has meant a very high level of prosperity among the original peasant families with excellent housing, child care facilities, o.etc. Lin and I were completely unprepared for what we saw."

"The trip to China and Korea was a memorable occasion that opens a whole new world of opportunities for collaborative efforts with colleagues who are doing impressive work."

"From Hangzhou, Professor Yu accompanied us to Beijing. Liu funning, Executive Director of the Research Center for Public Policy in the Institute of Political Science in the Chinese Academy of the Social Sciences and editor of a Chinese journal bearing an English subtitle Res Publica, - organized our agenda wiith Deng Yuzhuang of the Institute of

Public Administration in the Ministry of Personnel We met with scholars at the institutes and centers in the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and research groups in ministries, such as agriculture, the China Center for Economic Research at Peking University, institutes for international and comparative studies at Renmin University, and representatives of the Ford Foundation in Beijing. The level of intellectual discussions was superb. Discussions especially with Liu Junning, Deng Yuzhuang, Mao Shoulong, Yu Xunda, and representatives of the Ford Foundation were concerned with translating and publishing diverse works in the Public Choice/Institutional Analysis traditions. A key problem is how to develop a continuing community of relationships among both scholars and translators inside and outside of China.

While in Beijing, we visited Tianiman Square, the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace, the Great Wall of China, and various areas of Beijing. The level of new construction and economic activity was most impressive."

"Arriving at the Seoul international airport, we were met by Suik Hwang and Myungsuk Lee, both of whom did their Ph.D. dissertations at Indiana University with Lin. They accompanied us to our hotel in downtown Seoul We visited a Korean peasant village near Seoul; traveled by air to Pohang, Korea; visited  Kyongju, the capital of the Shinla Kingdom; the POSCO steel works, a most impressive technological achievement; Seoul National University where I made a presentation to Suik's colleagues and students; and Myungsuk's university, Sung Kyun Kwan University.

WOW 1999

Following a late spring brainstorming session, planning has commenced for the second Workshop on the Workshop (WOW) scheduled for the third week of June 1999 in Bloomington. This WOW will be organized around a conference on institutional analysis and design that will provide the basis for an edited volume.

Mike McGinnis is laying the groundwork for the conference by developing a readings volume that will bring together some of the key works that have served as the foundation for the research program that has emerged over the last 20 years in the Workshop. This collection brings together articles of Workshop scholars from diverse policy fields including metropolitan governance, polycentric orders, governance of common-pool resources, constitutional order and development, frameworks for analyzing institutions, and self-governance.

As planning and development continue, we will need your comments and contributions. The preliminary steering committee includes Mike McGinnis, Lin Ostrom, Vincent Ostrom, Larry Schroeder,. Jimmy Walker, and John Williams. So, let’s hear it and, don’t forget to mark your calendars now!

Polycentric Social Capital: What a Little Coordination Can Do For You

Heads-up social capital researchers—What does this story suggest to you? Early in October, Linda Smith, Administrative Assistant and Business Manager in the Workshop, received a warm letter and contribution to the Workshop Newsletter Fund from Dr. Ed Connerley, Executive Director, International Management Development Institute, University of Pittsburgh.

Following is an excerpt from Ed Connerley’s letter to Linda:

"In June and July of this year, I was pleased to be able to adapt and use some of the training materials created by Chris Gerrard (Economic Development Institute, World Bank) and Tjip Walker and others, based on the Workshop’s Institutional Analysis and Design framework (see "Experimenting with the World Bank," Polycentric Circles, vol. 3, no. 2, June 1997). The materials, slightly adapted and translated into Portuguese, were used in a three-day "functional analysis" workshop for the Ministry of Agriculture, Government of Mozambique. I was especially gratified to use these materials and to experience participants enthusiastic reaction to them, because I remember a number of conversations, some ten or twelve years ago, in which Vincent, Lin, myself and others were told that the framework was too "complex," "theoretical," or "abstract" to ever be used in international development fieldwork!"

Linda passed a copy of Ed’s letter along to Margaret Polski, who edits the newsletter. Now it so happens that Margaret had recently worked with Chris Gerrard and was well-acquainted with these training materials. Thinking he would find Ed’s comments interesting, she sent a copy of the letter to Chris.

Soon after, Margaret received an Email from Chris Gerrard that said, in part,

"What a small world! Since last April, Daniel (Sellen) and I have been working with Jim Coates, the (World) Bank task manager for Mozambique, on the Bank-supported Agriculture Sector Investment Program (ASIP) there. Early on, we gave Jim a copy of our binder of our training materials on agriculture sector institutional reform, who gave it to Ed Connerley to help him prepare for the three-day workshop that he facilitated in Mozambique last year."

"Now Daniel is making preparations for a follow-up, two-week workshop in Mozambique that is tentatively scheduled for next February. Since receiving your letter, Daniel has already telephoned Ed Connerley in order to obtain his Portuguese translations of four of our presentations, and talked to Ed about helping out with the upcoming Mozambique workshop."

For readers with more than a theoretical interest in this story, Ed has indicated he would be pleased to provide an electronic copy of his Powerpoint presentation of lAD materials in Portuguese. Ed can be reached by Email at econnerl@)idi.gspia.pitt.edu

Local Development in Nepal

The Workshop was privileged to host a visit by senior officials of His Majesty’s Government of Nepal in July 1997. Dr. Kishor Kumar Guru-gharana, Honorable Member of the National Planning Commission and Mr. Uday Raj Soti, Special Secretary in the Ministry of Local Development, were our guests for two days at the behest of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in Nepal.

The purpose of their visit was to learn more about the Workshop’s activities and to gain a better understanding of current Workshop research in Nepal. On the first day, Larry Schroeder introduced them to our development work; Charlotte Hess described our common-pool resource (CPR) database and ways to access Workshop resources on the Web; and Fabrice Lehoucq provided an overview of CIPEC activities. On the second day, presentations and discussions covered the most recent work of Workshop scholars and answered questions on theoretical issues.

Both officials were interested in understanding what is required to increase effective participation in community development. Some of the issues they are most concerned with include:

• Encouraging demand-driven self-governance at the village-level in a way that is need-based and takes into account existing capacity to absorb and use aid.
• Developing monitoring and feedback mechanisms to assess the disbursement and use of aid in order to reduce corruption and other leakages.
• Mobilizing communities to address critical needs.

Departing Bloomington, they observed that the level of intellectual entrepreneurship and the excitement about theoretically-grounded policy research they saw at the Workshop was well worth the two-day trip! Lin Ostrom and other colleagues from the Workshop will be meeting them again in November in Kathmandu to continue this exchange.

Call For Papers

International Workshop on Community-Based Natural Resource Management

The World Bank
Washington, D.C.
May 10 to 14, 1998

The Economic Development Institute (EDI) of the World Bank, in conjunction with the International Development Research Centre (Canada), is organizing an international workshop on community-based natural resource management that will be held in Washington, D.C., from May 10-1,4, 1998.

The workshop will focus on institutional innovations that enhance the community-based management of renewable natural resources and that help to alleviate poverty among the world’s poorest peoples.

The workshop organizers are soliciting case studies of viable institutional innovations with respect to community-based natural resource management in developing and transition economies. They will consider case studies in relation to any renewable natural resource that contains a significant common property dimension, such as watersheds, forests, rangeland, soils, water, fisheries, and biodiversity.

Cases may be written in English, French, Russian, or Spanish. Authors should submit the first draft of their case (along with their address, phone, fax, and e-mail information) to the following address by February 6, 1998. For more information, email Christopher D. Gerrard, World Bank/EDI, cgerrardl@worldbank.org

Visiting Scholars

Jose Apesteguia, Department of Economics, Public University of Navarre, Pamplona, SPAIN. Jose is a Ph.D. student in Economics with interests in institutional theory and particularly in institutional evolution from a bounded rationality perspective.

Corinne Kaiser, Department of Economics, University of Duisburg, Duisburg, GERMANY. A Ph.D. student in Economics working on her dissertation, Corinne is interested in international integration, the political economy of trade policy, and the future role of the World Trade Organization.

Stephan Kuhnert, Department of Economics, Philipps-Universitat Marburg, Marburg, GERMANY. Stephan is a Ph.D. student in Economics writing a dissertation on political entrepreneurship. He is interested in the motivational background of those who organize collective action organizations.

Sujai Shivakumar, Department of Economics, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA. Sujai is a Postdoctoral fellow interested in applying his background in Constitutional Political Economy to understand how today’s transitioning economies are faring given how their institutional structure enables them the stability to develop and the flexibility to adapt.

Hong Keun Yune, Department of Public Administration, Seoul National Polytechnic University, Seoul, KOREA. Dr. Yune has been interested in the institutional arrangements affecting the government-business relationship. He is currently working on a study that explains the economic liberalization process in Korea.

Short-Term Visitors

Arun Agrawal, Department of Political Science, Yale University, 7/23-25 and 10/21-26

Krister Andersson, Ministry of the Environment, Ecuador, 10/13-22

Alice Ennals, FAO, Norway, Costa Rica, 10/5-10/31

Rosario Leon, CERES, Bolivia, 9/29-11/1

Priya Shyamsundar and Kuswata Kartawinata, MacArthur Foundation, 10/22-23

IFRI Program Participants

George Kajembe, Tanzania

Keshav Kanel, Nepal

Vincent Kihiyo, Tanzania

Mathew Kurian, India

Binay Singh, India

Sharad Tapasvi, India

Henry Wakhungu, Kenya

Affiliated Faculty

KEN BICKERS, Political Science

JEROME BUSEMEYER, Psychology

KATHRYN FIREMAN-SELLERS, Political Science

ROY GARDNER, Economics

CLARK GIBSON, Political Science

CHARLOTTE HESS, Workshop & School of Library and Information Science

KERRY KRUTILLA, School of Public and Environmental Affairs (SPEA)

TOM LYON, Business Economics & Public Policy, Kelley School of Business

MIKE MCGINNIS, Political Science

BURT MONROE, Political Science

LLOYD ORR, Economics

ROGER PARKS, SPEA

ERIC .RASMUSEN, Business Economics & Public Policy, Kelley School of Business

DAVID SCHMIDT, Economics

LARRY SCHROEDER, SPEA

JAMES WALKER, Economics

JOHN WILLIAMS, Political Science

Congratulations!

Patty Dalecki—Administrative Assistant, Workshop, celebrated 20 years of service with lU/Workshop in August.

Nives Dolsak—Ph.D. student in the School of Public and Environmental Affairs & Political Science, IU, was awarded a PERC Fellowship to study policy instruments that can be used to address global climate change and how the choice of policy instruments affects the incentives of various negotiators.

Wai-Fung (Danny) Lam and Jim Perry—were granted a Hong Kong Research Grants Council award in the amount of $100,000 for their study, Institutional Design and Change in Hong Kong’s Public Sector.

Aseem Prakash—Assistant Professor of Strategic Management and Public Policy, School of Business and Public Management, George Washington University, was awarded a joint Ph.D. in Policy and Political Science after successfully defending his dissertation, "A Logic of Corporate Environmentalism: ‘Beyond-Compliance’ Environmental Policymaking in Baxter International Inc. and Eli Lilly and Company.

S. Tjip Walker—Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, University of North Carolina, has been awarded a Ph.D. in Political Science after successfully defending his dissertation, "Both Pretense and Promise: The Political Economy of Privatization in Africa."

Colloquia

David Schmidt, 9-15, Economics Department, IU, "Coordination Failure: The Role of Risk Dominance, Payoff Dominance, Social History, and Reputation."

Eric Rasmusen, 9-22, Business Economics & Public Policy,.Kelley School of Business, IU, "Creating and Enforcing Norms with Special Reference to Sanctions" (written with Richard Posner).

Elinor Ostrom, 9-29, Workshop, Political Science, IU, "A Behavioral Approach to the Rational Choice Theory of Collective Action."

Eric Bjornlund, 10-6, Senior Associate and Director of Asia Programs, National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, Washington, D.c., "The Role of External Assistance to Democratization: Lessons and Prospects."

Fabrice Lehoucq, 10-13, Center for the Study of Institutions, Population, and Environmental Change, IU, "Institutionalizing Democracy: Constraint and Ambition in the Politics of Electoral Reform."

Chi-kan Richard Hung, 10-20, Ph.D. Candidate, School of Public and Environmental Affairs & Political Science, "Southern Innovation, Northern Adaptation:

The Experience of Group-Based Microcredit Programs in the U.S."

Jose Molinas, 10-27, The Hellen I(Kellogg Institute, University of Notre Dame, "Who Cooperates? A Study of’ Membership in Peasant Cooperatives."

Edna Loehman, 11-3, Department of Agricultural Economics, Purdue University, "Testing a Coordination Process for Shared Goods: The Possibility of’Successful Collective Action."

Charlotte Hess, 11-10, Workshop & Department of Library Sciences, IU, "Environmental Information Collaboration and Reciprocity in Developing Countries: Applying Self-governing Mechanisms to the Problem of Information Inequity with a Focus on Africa and a Case Study in Uganda."

Heike Hennig-Schmidt, 11-17, University of Bonn, GERMANY, "Break-offs in Bargaining—An Anomaly? Evidence from a Video Experiment."

Mike McGinnis, 12-1, Political Science, IU, "NGO Response to Complex Humanitarian Emergencies: A Strategic Analysis."

John Maxwell, 12-8, Business Economics and Public Policy, Kelley School of Business, IU, and Rafael Reuvey, School of Public and Environmental Affairs, IU, "Environmental Scarcity and Conflict: An Economic Analysis."

Recent Publications

People and Participation in Sustainable Development
G. Shivakoti, G. Varughese, E. Ostrom, A. Shukla, and G. Thapa, eds. ISBN 1-889740-02-0 March 1997 · 315 pp.

We are pleased to announce the publication of the Proceedings of the International Conference on People, Participation, and Sustainable Development held in Rampur, Nepal, in March 1996, entitled People and Participation in Sustainable Development: Understanding the Dynamics of Natural Resource Systems. This volume was entirely produced in Nepal by the Workshop with help from the Institute of Agriculture and Animal Science, Winrock International, and the FARM program of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations.

The contributors to this volume explore and encapsulate connections among three ideas: participation of users in resource management design and implementation, learning from one another, and making efforts at development durable. The papers, particularly those in part 1, press the sustainability inquiry on multiple fronts: a picture of global change in light of development efforts of the last two decades; a critique of different frameworks of study of resource use; arguments for measures that need to be taken to achieve sustainable natural resource use. Papers in the beginning of this volume take a hard look at how current .theory and practice approaches sustainability. Having come to a better understanding of what it means to attempt sustainable development, the final papers address policy formulation, analysis, and innovation in natural resource use and management. Policy issues related to irrigation and those related to Nepal’s natural resources from an indigenous management perspective are discussed with a focus on what has to be done to incorporate valuable lessons from indigenous management.

For information about this volume, please contact Patty Dalecki at the Workshop (zielinsk@indiana.edu).

Agrawal, Arun. Forthcoming. Greener Pastures: Markets, Politics and C’Community among a Migrant Pastoral People. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

Hesse, Joachim Jens#, and Theo A.J. Toonen, eds. 1996. The European Yearbook of Comparative Government and Public Administration, Vol. 11/1995. Baden, Germany: Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft; Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

Lam, Wai Fung. Forthcoming 1998. Institutions, Infrastructure, and Performance in the Governance and Management of Irrigation Systems: The Case of Nepal San Francisco, CA: ICS Press.

Adhikari, K.R., K.N. Pandit, and C.M. Schweik. 1997. "Integration-of GIS and GPS Techniques in Irrigation and Forest Resources -Mapping: Lessons Learned." In People and Participation in Sustainable Development.

Agrawal, A. 1997. "Forest Management under Common Property Regimes in the Kumaoun Himalaya." In People and Participation in Sustainable Development.

Bickers, K.N., and R. M. Stein. 1997. "Building Majority Coalitions for Sub-Majority Benefit Distributions." Public Choice 91:229-49.

Bogason, P. 1996. "Changes in Local Government in Scandinavia: Towards Organizational Differentiation?" In The European Yearbook of Comparative Government and Public Administration, Vol. 11/1995.

Chakravarty-Kaul, M. 1997. "Demographic Patterns and Natural Resources Dynamics in the Punjab, 1881-1991." In People and Participation in Sustainable Development.

Ostrom, E. 1997. "Investing in Capital, Institutions, and Incentives." In Institutions and Economic Development: Growth and Governance in Less-Developed and Post-Socialist Countries, ed. C. Clague, 153-8 1. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.

Ostrom, V. 1998. "Some Developments in the Study of Market Choice, Public Choice, and Institutional Choice." In Handbook of Public Administration Second Edition, ed. J. Rabin, W.B. Hildreth, and G.J. Miller, 1,065-87. New York: Marcel Dekker.

Ostrom, V., and E. Ostrom. 1997. "Cultures: Frameworks, Theories, and Models." In Culture Matters: Essays in Honor of Aaron Wildavsky , ed. R.J. Ellis and M. Thompson, 79-88. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

Schweik., C.M. 1997. "Spatial Analysis of Natural Resources in East Chitwan, Nepal: Conceptual Issues and a Multiscale Research Program." In People and Participation in Sustainable Development.

Schweik, C.M., K. Adhikari, and K.N. Pandit. 1997. "Land-Cover Change and Forest Institutions: A Comparison of Two Sub-Basins in the Southern Siwalik Hills of Nepal." Mountain Research and Development 17(2): 99-116.

Shukla, A.K., G.P. Shivakoti, P. Benjamin, and E. Ostrom. 1997. "Reflections on Irrigation Policies in Nepal." In People and Participation in Sustainable Development.

HOLIDAY GREETINGS

We join staff and colleagues here in Bloomington in sending each of you Season’s Greetings, best wishes for a stimulating and productive New Year, and an opportunity to renew connections at the Workshop, or the "Workshop on the Workshop" in June 1999.

Lin and Vincent Ostrom

Co-Directors

POLYCENTRIC CIRCLES
Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis
Indiana University, 513 North Park
Bloomington, IN 47408-3895 USA

Telephone: (812) 855-0441
FAX: (812) 855-3150
Email: workshop@indiana.edu

Back to the Workshop Homepage
Copyright 1998, Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis
Last updated:  September 23, 1998