NOTICE: Lemke on Polycentricism, self-governance and the case of married women’s rights reform

Jaymes S Lemke's ‘Polycentricism, self-governance and the case of married women’s rights reform’, published in (2011-12) The Annual Proceedings of the Wealth and Well-Being of Nations: Volume IV, is available on SSRN

The abstract reads:

Self-enforcing constitutional constraints provide the means for individuals to discipline government actors. This paper utilizes the theory of polycentric orders as developed by Vincent and Elinor Ostrom to analyze jurisdictional competition as one such self-enforcing constraint. The historical case study of married women’s rights reform in the 19th century is suggested as an appropriate test case for evaluating the feasibility of this mechanism as a means of preserving the self-governing nature of a society. This paper was prepared for the Miller Upton Forum on the Wealth and Well-Being of Nations at Beloit College.