Beyond Individualism and Spontaneity: Comments on Peter Boettke and Christopher Coyne

This paper builds on the work of Boettke and Coyne that locates the research of Elinor and Vincent Ostrom and their Workshop colleagues within a broad intellectual tradition of long duration. It is argued that the Ostroms and the rest of the Workshop have made rather substantial departures beyond these intellectual forebears than may be evident from Boettke and Coyne’s overview. Specific focus is placed on two of the major points that they discuss: methodological individualism and spontaneous order.