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01-04-2015

The past, present and future of Virginia Political Economy

Authors: Peter J. Boettke, Alain Marciano

Published in: Public Choice | Issue 1-2/2015

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Abstract

We present a short history of the Virginia School of Political Economy in its institutional settings of University of Virginia (UVA), Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, or Virginia Tech (VPI), and George Mason University (GMU). We discuss the original research and educational project as envisioned by Buchanan at UVA, its maturity into a normal science at VPI, and its continuation at GMU. We argue that the future of Virginia Political Economy will depend critically on the various alternative interpretations of the Buchanan project in positive economics, welfare economics, and political economy.

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Also published in 1962 was Buchanan’s “Politics, Policy, and Pigovian Margins” and Buchanan and Stubblebine’s “Externality,” both of which appeared in Economica, as well as Davis and Whinston’s “Externalities, Welfare and the Theory of Games” in the Journal of Political Economy. Davis was a former Ph.D. student of Buchanan’s. All were significant papers in the emerging literature on comparative institutional analysis of government and the market.

Letter to Charles J. Hitch, 20 January 1969, Buchanan papers, Buchanan House, George Mason University.

We are using those terms in the standard philosophy of science meaning where “revolutionary science” refers to work calling for a paradigm shift, whereas “normal science” refers to work within an accepted paradigm. In other words, the work in the 1960s initiating the public choice paradigm was so successful that by the 1970s folks working within the economic analysis of politics were more or less engaged in normal science. The constitutional political economy branch of public choice (which is most identified with James Buchanan) was still a revolutionary vision even to those working within traditional public choice.

See Kirzner (2014) for an appreciation of Buchanan and his support of the modern Austrian school of economics. Also see Boettke’s Living Economics (2012), which devotes two chapters to Buchanan’s contributions to “mainline” economics.

See this link for a video recording of his talk at GMU in 1983 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYCD7_OG2fU#t=12

See Aligica and Boettke (2009) for a discussion of the Bloomington School and its importance for political economy. Also see the papers in this issue discussing the contribution of the Bloomington School to the public choice tradition.

See Boettke et al. (2013) for a discussion of the contra-Whig theory of intellectual history applied to economics.

See Buchanan’s (1997) collection of essays Post Socialist Political Economy and, in particular, his essays on the “tacit presuppositions of political economy”.

Aligica, P. D., & Boettke, P. J. (2009). Challenging the institutional analysis of development: The Bloomington School. New York, NY: Routledge.

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Boettke, P., Coyne, C., & Leeson, P. (2013). Earw(h)ig: I can’t hear you because your ideas are too old. Cambridge Journal of Economics. doi:10.1093/cje/bes075.

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Buchanan, J. M. (1958). The Thomas Jefferson Center for studies in political economy. The University of Virginia News Letter, vol. XXXV(2) Oct 15th 5–8.

Buchanan, J. M. (1962). Politics, policy, and the Pigovian margins. Economica, 29(113), 17–28.CrossRef

Buchanan, J. M. (1975a). The limits of liberty. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

Buchanan, J. M. (1975b). The Samaritan’s dilemma. In E. S. Phelps (Ed.), Altruism, morality, and economic theory (pp. 71–85). New York: Russell Sage.

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Davis, O. A., & Whinston, A. (1962). Externalities, welfare, and the theory of games. Journal of Political Economy, 70(3), 241–262.CrossRef

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Levy, D. M., & Peart, S. (2013). How the Virginia School got its name. In Paper presented at the Summer Institute, University of Richmond.

Mueller, D. (1976). Public choice: A survey. Journal of Economic Literature, 14(2), 395–433.

Nutter, G. W. (1962). Growth of industrial production in the Soviet Union. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Ostrom, V. (1997). The meaning of democracy and the vulnerability of democracies. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.

Ostrom, E. (2011). Honoring James Buchanan. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 80(2), 370–373.CrossRef

Simons, H. (1983). Simons’ syllabus. In Tullock, G. (ed.). Fairfax, VA: Center for the Study of Public Choice, George Mason University.

Tullock, G. (1967). Welfare costs of monopoly, tariffs and theft. Western Economic Journal [Now Economic Inquiry], 5(3), 224–232.CrossRef

Tullock, G. (1974). The social dilemma. Blacksburg, VA: Center for Study of Public Choice.

Wagner, R. E. (2007). Fiscal sociology and the theory of public finance. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar.CrossRef

Wagner, R. E. (2010). Mind, society and human action. New York, NY: Routledge.

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Yeager, L. B. (Ed.). (1962). In search of a monetary constitution. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Yeager, L. B. (2014). Reminiscences of James Buchanan and the Virginia School. The Review of Austrian Economics (forthcoming).

Title: The past, present and future of Virginia Political Economy
Authors: Peter J. Boettke
Alain Marciano
Publication date: 01-04-2015
Publisher: Springer US
Published in: Public Choice / Issue 1-2/2015
Print ISSN: 0048-5829
Electronic ISSN: 1573-7101
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11127-014-0162-6

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