The work of James M. Buchanan, who died two weeks ago, provided a host of important insights into political economy and politics. For those who are unacquainted with the work of Buchanan, there is a brief overview/introduction in the current issue of the Economist. The opening paragraph may whet your interest:
A LIST of things that Americans judge more favourably than Congress, according to Public Policy Polling, a survey firm, includes colonoscopies, root canals, lice and France. America seems to have stumbled from economic crisis to political paralysis. That would have come as little surprise to James Buchanan, a Nobel prize-winning economist and the architect of “public-choice theory”, who died on January 9th, aged 93.
long live public choice theory!