Contemporary research on the outcomes of diverse institutional arrangements for governing common-pool resources (CPRs ) and public goods at multiple scales builds on classical economic theory while developing new theory to explain phenomena that do not fit in a dichotomous world of “the market” and “the state.” Scholars are slowly shifting from positing simple systems to using more complex frameworks, theories, and models to understand the diversity of puzzles and problems facing humans interacting in contemporary societies. The humans we study have complex motivational structures and establish diverse private-for-profit, governmental, and com munity institutional arrangements that operate at multiple scales to generate productive and inno vative as well as destructive and perverse outcomes ( Douglass C. North 1990, 2005 ). In this article, I will describe the intellectual journey that I have taken the last half century from when I began graduate studies in the late 1950s. The early efforts to understand the poly centric water industry in California were formative for me. In addition to working with Vincent Ostrom and Charles M. Tiebout as they formulated the concept of polycentric systems for gov erning metropolitan areas, I studied the efforts of a large group of private and public water producers facing the problem of an overdrafted groundwater basin on the coast and watching saltwater intrusion threaten the possibility of long term use. Then, in the 1970s, I participated with colleagues in the study of polycentric police industries serving US metropolitan areas to find that the dominant theory underlying massive reform proposals was incorrect. Metropolitan areas served by a combination of large and small producers could achieve economies of scale in the production of some police services and avoid diseconomies of scale in the production of others. These early empirical studies led over time to the development of the Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework. A common framework consistent with game theory enabled us to undertake a variety of empirical studies including a meta-analysis of a large number of existing case studies on common-pool resource systems around the world. Carefully designed experimental studies in the lab have enabled us to test precise combinations of structural vari ables to find that isolated, anonymous individuals overharvest from common-pool resources. Simply allowing communication, or “cheap talk,” enables participants to reduce overharvest ing and increase joint payoffs contrary to game theoretical predictions. Large studies of irrigation systems in Nepal and forests around the world challenge the presumption that governments always do a better job than users in organizing and protecting important resources.

/pdf/beyond-markets-and-states-polycentric-governance-of-complex-23y9ii9i6l.pdf

Beyond Markets and States: Polycentric Governance of Complex Economic Systems

Crossing the great divide: Coproduction, synergy, and development

This text provides a wide-ranging discussion of personal movitation that opens out traditional eonomics to provide a more mature view of individuals as being sensitive to private and moral motives as well as market incentives.

Not Just for the Money: An Economic Theory of Personal Motivation

The 20th anniversary issue of Global Environmental Change provides an important opportunity to address the core questions involved in addressing ‘‘global environmental’’ problems—especially those related to climate change. Climate change is a global collective-action problem since all of us face the likelihood of extremely adverse outcomes that could be reduced if many participants take expensive actions. Conventional collective-action theory predicts that these problems will not be solved unless an external authority determines appropriate actions to be taken, monitors behavior, and imposes sanctions. Debating about global efforts to solve climate-change problems, however, has yet not led to an effective global treaty. Fortunately, many activities can be undertaken by multiple units at diverse scales that cumulatively make a difference. I argue that instead of focusing only on global efforts (which are indeed a necessary part of the long-term solution), it is better to encourage polycentric efforts to reduce the risks associated with the emission of greenhouse gases. Polycentric approaches facilitate achieving benefits at multiple scales as well as experimentation and learning from experience with diverse policies.

Polycentric systems for coping with collective action and global environmental change

In recent years, there has been a radical reinterpretation of the role of policy making and service delivery in the public domain. Policy making is no longer seen as a purely top-down process but rather as a negotiation among many interacting policy systems. Similarly, services are no longer simply delivered by professional and managerial staff in public agencies but are coproduced by users and their communities. Th is article presents a conceptual framework for understanding the emerging role of user and community coproduction and presents several case studies that illustrate how diff erent forms of coproduction have played out in practice. Traditional conceptions of service planning and management are now outdated and need to be revised to account for coproduction as an integrating mechanism and an incentive for resource mobilization — a potential that is still greatly underestimated. However, coproduction in the context of multipurpose, multistakeholder networks raises important public governance issues that have implications for public services reform.

/pdf/beyond-engagement-and-participation-user-and-community-4cgkuohupx.pdf

Beyond Engagement and Participation: User and Community Coproduction of Public Services

which it was applied. Second, the automated selection of high priority cases by PROMIS was used as a back-up for manual selection during much of the first two years of operation. Eventually the automated selection of high priority cases for special pretrial preparation was discontinued. These factors suggest that, while the PROMIS development may have been instrumental in the establishment of the Special Litigation Unit, the operation of the Special Litigation Unit soon became relatively independent of PROMIS. A more rigorous evaluation, if it named anything, might have named the Special Litigation Unit as an exemplary project rather than the PROMIS system as a whole. An implementation analysis of the type presented here was not conducted. Instead, LEAA relied on information provided by project participants in making the designation decision. 14. Marketing activities include: distribution of a nontechnical description of PROMIS, videotape and film presentations, demonstrations at conventions such as those of the National District Attorney's Association, the conduct of quarterly meetings of adopters and potential adopters, publication of a quarterly newsletter, the conduct of on-site feasibility studies, and preparation of benefit-cost analyses for justifying PROMIS to local funding sources. 15. Technical assistance is provided by INSLAW personnel through site visits as well as through telephone and written communications. It includes help in planning projects; writing requests for proposals and selecting contractors; installing, testing, and modifying the basic software; and establishing training programs. 16. David L. Weimer, The Inducement and Implementation of Innovations for Prosecution Management, Dissertation, Graduate School of Public Policy, University of California at Berkeley, May 1978.

Coproduction: Citizen Participation in Service Delivery

The concept of coproduction of public services has captured increased attention as a potential means of increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of local government. In this article we explore the concept of coproduction in an effort to sharpen the definition of that concept and add rigor to our understanding of the effects of coproduction in local service delivery and the processes by which coproductive activity occurs.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1541-0072.1981.tb01208.x

Consumers as coproducers of public services: some economic and institutional considerations

Patterns of metropolitan policing

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1541-0072.1978.tb01782.x

The Public Service Production Process: A Framework for Analyzing Police Services

Using a comparative research design, this study examines the consequences of organizing neighborhood patrol functions on a large scale by a city-wide police force or on a small scale by local communities. The research was conducted in three small independent communities adjacent to Indianapolis, and three matched neighborhoods within the city. The findings indicate a consistent pattern of higher levels of police performance in the independent communities when compared to the Indianapolis neighborhoods. The findings strongly suggest that in the area studied, small police forces under local community control are more effective than a large, city-wide controlled police department in meeting citizen demands for neighborhood police protection. Further studies have been initiated to ascertain if the patterns found in this metropolitan area are also present in other areas.

Gordon P. Whitaker

Papers

Coproduction: Citizen Participation in Service Delivery

Consumers as coproducers of public services: some economic and institutional considerations

Patterns of metropolitan policing

The Public Service Production Process: A Framework for Analyzing Police Services

Does Local Community Control of Police make a Difference? Some Preliminary Findings