James G. March

ix, 152 pages ; 20 cm

Going beyond democratic theory, March and Olsen draw on social science to examine how political institutions create and sustain democratic solidarity, identities, capabilities, accounts, and adaptiveness; how they can maintain and elaborate democratic values and beliefs - and how governance might be made honorable, just, and effective. They show how democratic governance is both preactive and reactive - creating interests and power as well as responding to them - and how it shapes not only an understanding of the past and an ability to learn from it, but even history itself. By exploring how governance transcends the creation of coalitions that reflect existing preferences, resources, rights, and rules, the authors reveal how it includes the actual formation of these defining principles of social and political life.

The authors reassess contemporary political thought, concentrating on how political institutions function, how they affect political life, how they change, and how they might be improved.

A Behavioral Theory of the Firm has become a classic work in organizational theory, looking inside the firm to develop new theoretical ideas about economic behavior. Rejecting the portrayal of the firm found in classical economic theory, the authors focus on the actual behavior of business firms. Their ideas, which have influenced students of organizations throughout the social sciences, capture the fundamentals of organizational decision making, offering important perspectives not only on economic organizations but also on governmental agencies and educational institutions.

In this series of lectures, previously unpublished in English, and here translated from a French reconstruction and interpretation by noted scholar Thierry Weil, leading organizational scholar James March uses great works of literature to explore the problems of leadership. Uses great works of literature to explore the problems of leadership, for example War and Peace, Othello, and Don Quixote. Presents moral dilemmas related to leadership, for example the balance between private life and public duties, and between the expression and the control of sexuality. Encourages readers to explore ideas that are sometimes subversive and unpalatable but may allow organizations to adapt in a rapidly changing world.