Heikkila, Tanya

This panel will host a roundtable discussion on the opportunities and challenges posed by the integrative study of state-reinforced self-governance (SRSG) via the Institutional Grammar (IG). The panel chairs and audience will be invited to discuss the following key topics, as well as questions and topics generated by the panel moderator(s) and audience: (1) What are “commons” in state-reinforced and other societal systems, where government(s) affect (e.g., enable, constrain, contribute to) the creation, governance, and/or management of commons (reconceptualizing the State, non-state, and the commons)? (2) What can IG methods tell us about State power, Faustianing bargaining (i.e., constitutional decision-making underlying society’s fundamental social contracts), and the constitution of polycentric self-governing societies (conceptualizing State power and constitutional choice)? (3) How can concepts of power and SRSG be studied, measured, and assessed using the IG (multimethods and metrics in the study of SRSG)? and (4) How do we envision future opportunities and directions for the development of the IG, SRSG Framework, and the study of the commons (future perspectives)?

Recent developments in the concept of state-reinforced self-governance (SRSG) are enabling institutional analysts to rethink the role of the State (or states across different jurisdictional scales) in facilitating and constraining self-governing, adaptive, and transformative solutions to complex societal dilemmas. However, the methods needed to analyze formal policy documents, and informal rules-in-use, in order to evaluate SRSG are underdeveloped. This panel will convene case study papers that apply the Institutional Grammar (IG) in novel ways to examine SRSG. We also seek papers that apply novel techniques designed to simultaneously inform the IG and the SRSG conceptualization of the State, State power, self-governance, and the commons.