As indicated by the name, position rules dictate the positions held by participants in the ‘action situation’. They essentially provide the scaffolding for the scenario, and different positions may hold different levels of authority (Ostrom and Crawford 2005: 193). Some scenarios may have only one position held by all participants, but this is unlikely.
Boundary rules
As defined by Ostrom and Crawford (2005), boundary rules “define (1) who is eligible to enter a position, (2) the process that determines which eligible participants may enter (or must enter) positions, and (3) how an individual may leave (or must leave) a position” (194).