Abstract
Constitutional political economy has focused heavily on designing constitutional rules sufficient to constrain governmental power. More attention has been devoted to designing rules that are effective constraints than on the institutions that would be required to enforce them. One problem is that rules are interpreted and enforced by the political elite, who tend to interpret and enforce them in ways that favor their interests over those of the masses. Democratic oversight is ineffective because voters realize they have no influence over public policy, and are therefore rationally ignorant. A system of checks and balances within government is necessary for enforcing constitutional constraints because it divides power among elites with competing interests and enables one group of elites to check the power of others. Checks and balances within governmental institutions are necessary to constrain the government from abusing its power.
Highlights
Buchanan (1975, pp. 2–3, italics in original) discusses the distinguishing feature of constitutional economics
Selective enforcement allows laws to be enforced for the benefit of the enforcers and to the detriment of others who are in an adversarial position to the enforcers, or are not being as cooperative as the enforcers would prefer.1. Factors like these have not been addressed in the constitutional political economy literature, which has for the most part assumed that rules are unambiguous and objectively applied
The important role constitutional constraints on government play in protecting the rights and well-being of citizens has been well-recognized for centuries
Summary
Buchanan (1975, pp. 2–3, italics in original) discusses the distinguishing feature of constitutional economics. 97) says “Institutions are the humanly devised constraints that structure political, economic, and social interaction”. Constitutional economics, following Buchanan and North, studies the choice among institutions—the choice among humanly devised constraints. The literature in constitutional economics has focused heavily on the design of effective rules to prevent the abuse of government power, and to facilitate government production that benefits the general population rather than concentrated special interests. It has focused less on the design of institutions that are able to effectively enforce those rules. This paper explains why checks and balances are essential as a constitutional enforcement mechanism
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