Institutional theory and analysis are the basis for commons research in social science. Scholars continue to explore ways to improve theory and measurement to better understand institutional phenomena, such as State (governmental) involvement in collective and self-governing solutions to commons dilemmas. Recent developments in the concept of state-reinforced self-governance (SRSG) and institutional analysis through the Institutional Grammar (IG) are illustrative. This paper offers an integrated application of the SRSG and IG to formally explore theoretical and analytical opportunities, operational steps, and potential for future research. It does so in the context of fisheries management—a complex multi-scale dilemma involving diverse actors, policies, and ecological factors.
The SRSG framework identifies four principles by which governments enable adaptive and transformative capacities of governance bodies via polycentric, self-governing systems: adequate responsibility, authority, operational resources, and flexibility/stability to engage in (a) multistakeholder cooperation (cf. Ostrom 1990) and (b) constitutional, administrative, and operational decision-making to modify important rule systems and production activities. The reliable and rigorous measurement of these principles is fundamental.
We develop the IG to support this measurement. We address several interlocking theoretical and methodological questions. For example, how are State power, State-reinforced cooperation, and capacity for self-governance represented and transmitted to key actors in formal policy? What role(s) do councils play in adaptive/transformative governance; how are these roles tied to fundamental characteristics (design principles)? What regulative and constitutive statements define critical aspects of responsibility, authority, operational resources, and flexibility/stability? What syntactic patterns emerge among principles? How can these patterns inform understanding of constitutional, administrative, and operational decision-making?
We examine the 2007 Magnuson-Stevens Act governing the formation and operation of U.S. fishery management councils. The Act is the most important legal document guiding and potentially reinforcing the operations of fishery management councils to make policy decisions. Overall, this research advances the study of SRSG by clarifying how recent IG advancements support diagnosis of SRSG principles. Theoretically, it may provide tools to address foundational questions about State involvement in adaptive/transformative governance.
