Elinor Ostrom’s ‘Realist Orientation’: An Investigation of the Ontological Commitments of her Analysis of the Possibility of Self-Governance

Abstract

This paper explores how a consideration of ontological issues - that is, issues concerned the nature of social reality - informed Elinor Ostrom's analysis of the possibility that local communities can successfully govern common property resources. It is suggested that several ontological issues informed Ostrom's work: the distinction between brute and institutional facts; the openness of the social world; the nature of human agency; the configural nature of social rules; the relationship between social structure and human agency; and the complexity of the social world, viewed as a nested hierarchy of emergent systems. It is argued moreover that Ostrom adopted a ‘realist orientation’, whereby she adjusted her methods of analysis to fit her vision of the nature of the social world. In documenting how this realist orientation informed Ostrom’s work, the paper also contributes to research on the role of ontological thinking in the history of economics.

Keywords: Elinor Ostrom, social ontology, self-governance, realism, history of economic thought

JEL Classification: B2, B21, B25, B31, B41, B52