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.

Paul Dragos Aligica is emerging as one of the leading scholars of the next generation of the Bloomington School. This book has already consolidated his reputation in that capacity. * Karol Edward Soltan, Public Choice *

Paul Dragos Aligica is Senior Research Fellow in the F. A. Hayek Program for Advanced Study in Philosophy, Politics and Economics at the Mercatus Center of George Mason University.