Constitutional Economics

by James M. Buchanan

In "Constitutional Economics", James Buchanan examines three aspects of the role of government. He reappraises the function of government in the supply of money and therefore in the conduct of the economy of free society and aims to show that the main political legacy of the Keynesian revolution in macroeconomics has been the collapse of the previously accepted and tacit "fiscal constitution" which acted as a restraint on governments. Because Keynesian economics departed so radically from this course, Buchanan argues, it has become vulnerable to public choice analysis. That public choice as a new branch of political economy has profound relevance not only for academia but also for policy-makers in public life is demonstrated by the stimulating writings of Professor Buchanan and his associates in this book.

160 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 1991

About the author

American economist known for his work on public choice theory, for which in 1986 he received the Nobel Memorial Prize. Buchanan's work initiated research on how politicians' self-interest and non-economic forces affect government economic policy. He was a Member of the Board of Advisors of The Independent Institute, a Distinguished Senior Fellow of the Cato Institute, and professor at George Mason University.
Buchanan was the founder of a new Virginia school of political economy. He taught at the University of Virginia—where he founded the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression—UCLA, Florida State University, the University of Tennessee, and the Virginia Polytechnic Institute, where he founded the Center for the Study of Public Choice (CSPC). In 1983 a conflict with Economics Department head Daniel M. Orr came to a head and Buchanan took the CSPC to its new home at George Mason University. In 1988 Buchanan returned to Hawaii for the first time since the War and gave a series of lectures later published by the University Press. In 2001 Buchanan received an honorary doctoral degree from Universidad Francisco Marroquín, in Guatemala City, Guatemala, for his contribution to economics.