Readings in Public Choice and Constitutional Political Economy

Readings in Public Choice and Constitutional Political Economy

Author: Charles Rowley

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2008-08-09

Total Pages: 617

ISBN-13: 0387758704

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Public choice is the study of behavior at the intersection of economics and political science. Since the pioneering work of Duncan Black in the 1940s, public choice has developed a rich literature, drawing from such related perspectives as history, philosophy, law, and sociology, to analyze political decision making (by citizen-voters, elected officials, bureaucratic administrators, lobbyists, and other "rational" actors) in social and economic context, with an emphasis on identifying differences between individual goals and collective outcomes. Constitutional political economy provides important insights into the relationship between effective constitutions and the behavior of ordinary political markets. In Readings in Public Choice and Constitutional Political Economy, Charles Rowley and Friedrich Schneider have assembled an international array of leading authors to present a comprehensive and accessible overview of the field and its applications. Covering a wide array of topics, including regulation and antitrust, taxation, trade liberalization, political corruption, interest group behavior, dictatorship, and environmental issues, and featuring biographies of the founding fathers of the field, this volume will be essential reading for scholars and students, policymakers, economists, sociologists, and non-specialist readers interested in the dynamics of political economy.


Public Choice

Public Choice

Author: Iain McLean

Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Published: 1987

Total Pages: 222

ISBN-13: 9780631138396

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Applies the theories of economics to political decision making, and discusses elections, lobbying, bureaucracy, and political coalitions


Public Choice Theory and the Illusion of Grand Strategy

Public Choice Theory and the Illusion of Grand Strategy

Author: Richard Hanania

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2021-12-28

Total Pages: 206

ISBN-13: 100051403X

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This book argues that while the US president makes foreign policy decisions based largely on political pressures, it is concentrated interests that shape the incentive structures in which he and other top officials operate. The author identifies three groups most likely to be influential: government contractors, the national security bureaucracy, and foreign governments. This book shows that the public choice perspective is superior to a theory of grand strategy in explaining the most important aspects of American foreign policy, including the war on terror, policy toward China, and the distribution of US forces abroad. Arguing that American leaders are selected to respond to public opinion, not necessarily according to their ability to formulate and execute long-terms plans, the author shows how mass attitudes are easily malleable in the domain of foreign affairs due to ignorance with regard to the topic, the secrecy that surrounds national security issues, the inherent complexity of the issues involved, and most importantly, clear cases of concentrated interests. The book will be of interest to students and scholars of American Studies, Foreign Policy Analysis and Global Governance.


Politics as Public Choice

Politics as Public Choice

Author: James M. Buchanan

Publisher:

Published: 2000

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780865972377

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This volume presents a collection of thirty-four essays and shorter works by James M. Buchanan that represent the brilliance of his founding work on public-choice theory. The work of James M. Buchanan is perhaps most often associated with his helping to found public-choice theory. Buchanan's book-length works such as 'The Calculus of Consent' or 'The Reason of Rules' (Volumes 3 and 10, respectively, in Liberty Fund's 'The Collected Works of James M Buchanan') are best known for their brilliant application of market behavioural models to government. But Buchanan's shorter works represented here all show originality and insight as well as clear articulation of important theoretical principles. What's more, these essays have all had a significant impact on the subsequent literature about public choice. In this volume, the works are broken down into these major categorical groupings: general approach; public choice and its critics; voters; voting models; rent seeking; regulation; public choice and public expenditures. As Robert D Tollison concludes his foreword to this volumes, "Read in conjunction with the other parts of the 'Collected Works', these papers offer the reader a fuller appreciation of the public-choice revolution and its impact and prospects."


Beyond Politics

Beyond Politics

Author: Randy T. Simmons

Publisher: Independent Institute

Published: 2011-09-01

Total Pages: 572

ISBN-13: 1598130595

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Providing students of economics, politics, and policy with a concise explanation of public choice, markets, property, and political and economic processes, this record identifies what kinds of actions are beyond the ability of government. Combining public choice with studies of the value of property rights, markets, and institutions, this account produces a much different picture of modern political economy than the one accepted by mainstream political scientists and welfare economists. It demonstrates that when citizens request that their governments do more than it is possible, net benefits are reduced, costs are increased, and wealth and freedom are diminished. Solutions are also suggested with the goal to improve the lot of those who should be the ultimate sovereigns in a democracy: the citizens.


The Oxford Handbook of Public Choice

The Oxford Handbook of Public Choice

Author: Roger D. Congleton

Publisher:

Published: 2019

Total Pages: 1017

ISBN-13: 0190469773

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The Oxford Handbook of Public Choice provides a comprehensive overview of the research in economics, political science, law, and sociology that has generated considerable insight into the politics of democratic and authoritarian systems as well as the influence of different institutional frameworks on incentives and outcomes. The result is an improved understanding of public policy, public finance, industrial organization, and macroeconomics as the combination of political and economic analysis shed light on how various interests compete both within a given rules of the games and, at times, to change the rules. These volumes include analytical surveys, syntheses, and general overviews of the many subfields of public choice focusing on interesting, important, and at times contentious issues. Throughout the focus is on enhancing understanding how political and economic systems act and interact, and how they might be improved. Both volumes combine methodological analysis with substantive overviews of key topics. This second volume examines constitutional political economy and also various applications, including public policy, international relations, and the study of history, as well as methodological and measurement issues. Throughout both volumes important analytical concepts and tools are discussed, including their application to substantive topics. Readers will gain increased understanding of rational choice and its implications for collective action; various explanations of voting, including economic and expressive; the role of taxation and finance in government dynamics; how trust and persuasion influence political outcomes; and how revolution, coups, and authoritarianism can be explained by the same set of analytical tools as enhance understanding of the various forms of democracy.


School Choice

School Choice

Author: Mercedes K. Schneider

Publisher: Teachers College Press

Published: 2016-07-08

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780807757253

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Proponents of market-driven education reform view vouchers and charters as superior to local-board-run, community-based public schools. However, the author of this timely volume argues that there is no clear research supporting this view. In fact, Schneider claims there is increasing evidence of charter mismanagement—with public funding all-too-often being squandered while public schools are being closed or consolidated. Tracing the origins of vouchers and charters in the United States, this book examines the push to “globally compete” with education systems in countries such as China and Finland. It documents issues important to the school choice debate, including the impoverishment of public schools to support privatized schools, the abandonment of long-held principles of public education, questionable disciplinary practices, and community disruption. School Choice: The End of Public Education? is essential reading for anyone seeking a deeper understanding of the past and future of public education in America. Book Features: Provides a comprehensive historical account of the origins of vouchers and charters. Includes accounts of intriguing historical experiences. Examines the defunding of neighborhood public schools in favor of often underregulated charters. Reveals charter school “churn” that often follows the closing of a mismanaged charter. Provides a cogent counternarrative to the claim that charters are necessary for America to compete globally.


The Market and Public Choices

The Market and Public Choices

Author: Alfonso Salinas

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2018-01-12

Total Pages: 223

ISBN-13: 1351770322

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This title was first published in 2003. This book assumes a viewpoint practically absent from contemporary economics, and readdresses the first fundamental question of economics: how should we decide how scarce resources should be allocated among competing uses? By focusing on this question the book necessarily reconstitutes the link between ethics and economics. Thus the book deals with a crucial topic: the moral assessment of the market mechanism as a tool for allocating scarce resources. The key tenet of the book is that the market achieves ends that transcends itself - ends that must remain the prerogative of civil society. Questions of the foundations of moral philosophy are considered - allocating scarce resources is shown to be an exclusively human capacity which means that the market is unable to determine such issues endogenously. An intuitionist approach to moral philosophy is developed and this is placed in the context of the history of western moral philosophy. The argument encompasses mathematical logic, philosophy of mind, moral philosophy and economics. This key book will appeal to anyone interested in Economics and Ethics and the role of the state.


Readings in Public Finance

Readings in Public Finance

Author: Samuel H. Baker

Publisher: Delmar Thomson Learning

Published: 1997

Total Pages: 564

ISBN-13:

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This text serves as a useful supplement to public finance textbooks, helping students to build and weigh arguments, to identify strengths and weaknesses of opposing viewpoints, and ultimately to draw their own conclusions. Its two main objectives are to present policy issues, allowing students an opportunity to apply the theory discussed in class, and to show students how material is developed in the literature by having them read some of the classics and contemporary contributions. The readings in this book are not tied to any one text. The authors make certain, via a correlation guide in the front of the text, that each selection corresponds to at least one chapter in each of the major textbooks and that no text chapter is without a supplementary reading.