Libertarianism and the Bloomington School

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This chapter reviews the connections between the Bloomington School of Political Economy and libertarian thought. Elinor Ostrom and Vincent Ostrom, the founders of the Bloomington tradition, opposed the widespread belief that expert public officials could solve social problems better than citizens who engage in self-governance. Self-governing societies can and do develop their own institutions to resolve conflict and facilitate cooperation. The Ostroms’ normative project focused on a Tocquevillian, citizen-centered model of public administration and civil society. Their analytical project provided theoretical models and empirical data that showed how people can successfully engage in real-world self-governance without the need for a small group of elites to rule over the rest of society.