Barkley,
I just wanted to interject into this discussion a recognition of
today's Nobel Prize going to Lin Ostrom. And congratulate you on
running the special issue on Lin's work a few years ago, which
touched on her contributions to the study of spontaneous order.
My latest book Challenging Institutional Analysis and Development
(Routledge, 2009) picks up from what we had discussed in that JEBO
issue and develops further the contributions to political economy of
Lin and Vincent Ostrom.
It is all about building a political economy on the basis of HUMANLY
rational choice, and all that entails for behavior, institutions, and
epistemic properties of alternative environments.
The Ostrom's as a team were awarded the first lifetime achievement
award from the Fund for the Study of Spontaneous Order
http://atlasnetwork.org/programs/fund-for-the-study-of-spontaneous-orders/
Pete Boettke