Explorations into Constitutional Economics

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This book collects 31 of Nobel Laureate James Buchanan’s papers on a wide range of topics, but all are related by their constitutional approach to economics. The selections were compiled by Robert Tollison and Viktor Vanberg, who have chosen papers that are less well known than the contents of some earlier collections of Buchanan’s work. The volume serves two purposes: It makes some of Buchanan’s less-familiar work more accessible, and it illustrates both the theory and application of constitutional economics. The common theme gives the papers in this volume more impact when they are considered together than if each were read individually. Throughout his career, Buchanan has emphasized that institutional constraints are important determinants of the actual workings of economic systems, and constitutional economics studies are the properties of alternative sets of institutional rules. The first five chapters of this volume discuss the theoretical foundations of constitutional economics. Chapter 1, coauthored withGeoffrey Brennan, deals with the application of economic models to public policy questions, and it is a good choice tobegin the volume. Brennanand Buchanan discuss the assumption that individual behavior is self-interested, a point that is readily accepted in models of market processes but which is more controversial in models of politicalprocesses. It is often argued that this model of economic man is not descriptive of the actual behavior of individuals in the public sector, but Brennanand Buchananconclude that regardless ofits descriptive accuracy, the assumption that public servants are self-interested is the appropriate standard to use when evaluating the probable performance of alternative institutions. Institutions work better when they are designed to guard against the possibility that some people might try to use them for selfish reasons. In Chapter 2, Buchanan discusses the impact of public choice theory onpublic policy issues. By applying the same type ofanalysis economists