Ostromian Logic Applied to Civil Society Organizations and the Rules That Shape Them

This chapter applies the Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) Framework, conceived by Nobel Laureate Elinor Ostrom in 1990, to the institutional arrangements that structure and organize the operating environments for civil society organizations (CSOs). We begin by defining what is meant by “civil society” and “CSOs,” highlighting their essential attributes, followed by a discussion of the importance of the legal and regulatory frameworks that underlie the existence and operation of CSOs. We then briefly review Garett Hardin’s “Tragedy of the Commons” thesis before discussing the role that CSOs can play in preventing such “tragedies” from emerging in the first place. After presenting the types of rules that inform every IAD action situation and applying them to the existing research on CSOs, we conclude by reconceptualizing CSO regulatory regimes through the lens of Ostrom’s IAD framework and analysis.