December 1, 2024

Filippo Sabetti

"We invite you to join the Ostrom Workshop in congratulating Filippo (Fil) Sabetti upon the occasion of his retirement from McGill University in Montreal. Fil received his Ph.D. in Political Science from the Indiana University Department of Political Science in 1977. Yes, this means that Fil was a graduate student in Bloomington during the very years when the Ostrom Workshop was being established.

In a 2011 article in The Good Society, Fil shares thoughtful and gracious reminiscences of his time as a junior Workshopper. He admits being entranced by Vincent’s approach to interpreting major historical or philosophical works as inviting readers “to pursue the logic of the propositions as testable hypotheses.” As Fil summarized Vincent’s method, “No one read these books as he did.”

As a scholar, Fil Sabetti developed unique expertise in an unusually broad-ranging subject, as a generalist specializing in comparative constitutional studies. If you haven’t yet had the great pleasure of meeting Fil in person, you may recognize him as co-editor of four volumes of papers by fellow Workshopers, including Choice, Rules and Collective Action, co-edited with Paul Dragos Alicia, which I like to refer to as Lin and Vincent’s Greatest Hits.

Fil’s primary concern has always been local self-governance—what conditions are conducive to its success, and how have past and contemporary societies established and sustained constitutional orders that facilitate the capacity of local communities to govern themselves. Fil began his academic career wrestling with a rather problematic version of local self-rule—his thesis was entitled “The Political Basis of Human Misery: A Study of a Sicilian Village.” In this work Fil meticulously applied the principles of Ostromian institutional analysis to the Mafia and communities living under its influence. Fil’s updated his take on this delicate subject in his 2002 book Village Politics and the Mafia in Sicily. But Fil is best known for his 2000 book The Search for Good Government: Understanding the Paradox of Italian Democracy and for his many articles and essays on wide-ranging topics of constitution-making, civic culture, democracy, federalism, and institutional analysis rightly understood.

Despite his retirement, Fil is by no means done with this subject: he has a forthcoming book on Strategies for Self-Rule: Beyond State-Society Relations. I, for one, can’t wait to read it.

As a long-term Workshopper myself, I can personally attest that Fil is undeniably the nicest, and arguably the most stylish, of all the Ostrom Senior Research Fellows. Every time I’ve interacted with him, Fil always finds a gentle way to inject a welcome dose of levity and compassion into our topic of discussion, whatever that topic may be. His students and colleagues seem to feel much the same, as evidenced by comments such as “Nothing « common » about this scholar of the « commons »!” posted here.

May Fil Sabetti live long, enjoy his retirement to the full, and keep sharing his good cheer, and his sage wisdom, with the rest of us."

Mike McGinnis