Public Administration, Public Choice and the Ostroms: the achievements, the failure, the promise

The paper explores the Public Administration roots and facets of the Bloomington School of Public Choice and Institutional Theory and in doing that, it revisits the problem of the applied dimension of Public Choice. The paper investigates and documents the nature, significance and reception of Vincent and Elinor Ostrom’s work, approaching it as a pioneering attempt to promote a double agenda: on the one hand, to advance Public Choice theory as a paradigm shift in Public Administration, and on the other, to advance Public Administration as the preeminent applied domain of Public Choice theory.