Public Entrepreneurship, Citizenship, and Self-Governance

'We are offered the best one-volume analysis of public entrepreneurship, citizenship and self-governance. Drawing on a lifetime of study and reflection on different continents, Paul Dragos Aligica shows how much we gain in governance theory by drawing on the citizen-centered approach that Vincent and Elinor Ostrom developed and practiced over the years. At a time when new forms of tutelage, nativism and paternalism are gained grounds in the world, Aligica draws on the Ostroms to renew and reformulate, in an inspiring way, self-governance as a vision and as a theory that can help to stem the tide of anarchy, statism and despair about the prospect of democracy and the human condition itself. Social science at its best.' Filippo Sabetti, McGill University, Montreal 'Paul Dragos Aligica's Public Entrepreneurship, Citizenship, and Self-Governance offers a whole persuasive theory of the social world that challenges the right/left spectrum by starting not with states or markets but with people who work through a range of institutions to shape the world. For those entrepreneurs, this book is full of practical wisdom about how to operate more effectively and wisely.' Peter Levine, Lincoln Filene Professor, Tisch College of Civic Life, Tufts University, Massachusetts 'We are beset today by increasing skepticism of the viability and intelligence of democratic self-governance, raising doubts that traditional defenses fail to assuage. In this scholarly and important book, Paul Dragos Aligica shows how the Ostroms' pathbreaking work points to a reconceptualization of democratic citizenship, tying it to an enlightening idea of problem solving through public entrepreneurs. Aligica articulates a compelling vision of the institutions of a diverse and intelligent open society.' Gerald Gaus, James. E. Rogers Professor of Philosophy, University of Arizona, Tucson