An Introduction to IAD and the Language of the Ostrom Workshop: A Simple Guide to a Complex Framework for the Analysis of Institutions and Their Development

Abstract

This paper summarizes the conceptual categories and analytical perspectives that have been developed by Vincent and Elinor (Lin) Ostrom and other scholars affiliated with the Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis. The Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) Framework encapsulates the collective efforts of this intellectual community to understand the ways in which institutions operate and change over time. The IAD framework assigns all relevant explanatory factors and variables to categories and locates these categories within a foundational structure of logical relationships. For the purposes of this guide, other closely related conceptual distinctions will be considered to be included in the IAD framework, even if they were not originally presented as such.

Keywords: Institutional Analysis, Polycentric Governance, IAD Framework