The Quest to Understand Human Affairs presents fifty previously unpublished essays by Vincent Ostrom on the U.S. Government's environmental problems and resource governance and span the six decades of Ostrom's career in political science and public administration. Including everything from a 1947 essay on Western (U.S) issues in national politics to ending with a 2004 manuscript on Constitutional foundations and federal institutional forms, these essays examine significant developments in administration, constitutional design, and the evolution of theory and practice in the field of institutional analysis and development during the second half of the twentieth century and first decade of the new millennium. Political theorist, Barbara Allen, has edited the work and provided extensive notes that provide context and identify key events and persons cited in the works. These remarkable works not only offer specialists insight into developments in the fields of institutional analysis, resource governance, policy and administration, but also speak to general readers about worldwide transformations in democracies and human and environmental relations as well as the enduring challenge of sustaining just, productive political orders.

1 Preface 2 Editor's Intorduction 3 Part I. Natural Resources Policy and the Practice of Collective and Constitutional Choice 4 1947: Some Western Issues in National Politics 5 1948: A Statement [of Resigniation from the University of Wyoming] 6 1955-1958: The Alaska Constitution and Natural Resources 7 The Constitution of the State of Alaska: Article VIII: Natural Resources 8 Clarifying the Meaning of Article VIII: Natural Resources, as Adopted by the Alaska Constitutional Convention, in 1956 9 Alaska Constitutional Convention: Commentary on Article on State Lands and Natural Resources 10 Selected Correspondence Regarding Article VIII 11 1956-1958: Resource Administration in Practice: Water Policies and Public Works 12 A Water Policy for Tennessee 13 Draft Interim Report No. 1 Snake River Study 14 1959: Natural Resources and Economic and Institutional Development in Hawaii 15 Proceedings of the Hawaii Pre-Legislative Conference, Panel on Land Use: Remarks of Vincent Ostrom on Problems of Public Policies Concerning Land Use 16 Organization for Administration of Natural Resources and Economic Development in the Territory of Hawaii: A Survey Report of the Public Administration Service 17 1960: Contributions to the Western States' Democratic Conference and the National Democratic Party 1960 Platform and Natural Resources 18 1968: Organization of Decision-Making Arrangements and the Development of Atmospheric Resources 19 1971: An Alternative Approach to the Design of Public Organizational Arrangements 20 Part II: Community and Collective Choice 21 1952-1954: Community Studies and Educational Policy: The Kellogg Foundation Northwest Cooperative Program in Educational Administration at the University of Oregon 22 A Study of Community Behavior in Policy formation with Special Reference to Education Policies 23 Kellogg Project: Research Memorandum on An Approach to the analysis of the Processes of Policy Formation 24 An Approach to the Study of Political Behavior in the Local Community 25 1957-1958: New Directions in Theory and Method: Studies of the Klamath Indians 26 An Additional Note on the Theoretical Orientation of My Current Research 27 A Case Study of Termination of Federal Trusteeship Responsibilities in the Klamath Reservation 28 Interim Reports on the Klamath [Indian Tribe] Termination [of Tribal Status Policy] Study 29 1978: Language, Reason, and Discourse: A Comment on Thomas Sowell's "Institutional Advantage and State Action Concepts" 30 1982: The Normative Context of Community 31 1982: Institutional Analysis, Policy Analysis, and Performance Evaluation 32 1999: The Centrality of Local Institutions in the Constintution of Democracies 33 Part III: From Collective Choice to Constitutional Choice 34 1975: Political Orders and Public Service Structures 35 1979: Public Bureaucracies: Challenges and Responses to New Problems and Public Organization 36 1982: Self-Administration and Bureaucratic Administration 37 1983: Adam Smith and Public Goods 38 1988: Executive Leadership, Authority Relationships, and Public Entrepreneurship 39 1988: The Foundations of Institutional Analysis and Development

By Vincent Ostrom - Edited by Barbara Allen - Foreword by Elinor Ostrom