James M. Buchanan and Liberal Political Economy: A Rational Reconstruction [Paperback]

James M. Buchanan and Liberal Political Economy: A Rational Reconstruction examines the contemporary meaning and significance of James M. Buchanans body of work. The book uses Buchanans past contributions to explore the present and future relevance of his scholarly contributions and insights. It seeks mainly to explain what insight for their work contemporary scholars might acquire by becoming familiar with some of Buchanans formulations. Buchanan was one of the most creative and prolific scholars of political economy during the post-war period. Not only was his body of work so immense that it could not be contained within 20 volumes of Collected Works, but also Buchanans scholarship made such strong contact with law, ethics, and political science that he could easily have served as a poster-child for the programs in Politics, Philosophy, and Economics which have been gaining momentum in recent years. Buchanan spoke for a style of economics that made wide and firm contact with the full range of the humane studies. This book emphasizes those features of Buchanans thought that seem relevant for contemporary scholarship within the broadly liberal tradition of political economy.Richard E. Wagner is Holbert L. Harris Professor of Economics at George Mason University.

Nobel Laureate James M. Buchanan died in 2013. His former student, colleague, and coauthor Richard Wagner has written this account of Buchanans work from the perspective of the modern scholar. Hence the use of the words rational reconstruction in the subtitle. Rather than an intellectual biography, Wagner provides a composite of Buchanans themes and puts them together for the modern theorist to appreciate and use. There are benefits and costs to such an approach, and Wagner makes the most of the benefits. From public choice to constitutional economics to the quest for a moral order, Wagner outlines what the modern theorist considers to be the strength of Buchanans program. Wagners approach makelâ