The role the Ostroms played at the interface between Public Administration and Public
Choice theory is very well captured in Public Choice Theory in Public Administration: An
Annotated Bibliography by Nicholas Lovrich and Max Neiman, published in 1984, with a
foreword by Robert Golembiewski. The book’s attempt to take stock of the developments
at the interface is especially relevant for this discussion. It is a comprehensive assessment
based on a systematic bibliographical review of the first two decades of the Public Choice
intrusion into Public Administration, an assessment done precisely at the critical moment
when the gap between the Public Administration mainstream and the Ostroms was
beginning to widen. The book starts by noting that ‘‘public choice represents a new and
rapidly growing influence in public administration’’. Few graduate programs and textbooks
in Public Administration existed then ‘‘that do not include analytical and normative public
choice approaches’’ and ‘‘it is quite safe to assume that there are precious few public
administration instructors who have not read Vincent Ostrom’s exposition of public choice