IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/ajecsc/v64y2005i4p1049-1071.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Wicksell's Unaminity Rule

Author

Listed:
  • Marianne Johnson

Abstract

This paper identifies the extent to which James Buchanan's interpretation of Knut Wicksell’s unanimity rule, as spelled out in the second essay in Finanztheoretische Untersuchungen (1896), has come to dominate the public economics literature despite competing with the interpretation offered by Richard Musgrave. A brief summary of the differing interpretations is offered. Citation analysis is used to examine the frequency with which Wicksell is cited and by whom. The sociology of the economics profession and avenues for the dissemination of ideas are examined to understand the dominance of Buchanan's particular interpretation and application of the unanimity rule.

Suggested Citation

  • Marianne Johnson, 2005. "Wicksell's Unaminity Rule," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 64(4), pages 1049-1071, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ajecsc:v:64:y:2005:i:4:p:1049-1071
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1536-7150.2005.00425.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1536-7150.2005.00425.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1536-7150.2005.00425.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Atkinson, A. B., 1987. "The collected papers of Richard A. Musgrave : A review article," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 389-398, August.
    2. Richard Abel Musgrave, 1939. "The Voluntary Exchange Theory of Public Economy," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 53(2), pages 213-237.
    3. David Reisman, 1990. "The Political Economy of James Buchanan," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-1-349-10519-9, September.
    4. Buchanan, James M, 1987. "The Constitution of Economic Policy," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 77(3), pages 243-250, June.
    5. Smith, Vernon L, 1977. "The Principle of Unanimity and Voluntary Consent in Social Choice," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 85(6), pages 1125-1139, December.
    6. Hansjurgens, Bernd, 2000. "The Influence of Knut Wicksell on Richard Musgrave and James Buchanan," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 103(1-2), pages 95-116, April.
    7. P. Hennipman, 1982. "Wicksell and Pareto: Their Relationship in the Theory of Public Finance," History of Political Economy, Duke University Press, vol. 14(1), pages 37-64, Spring.
    8. Bernd Hansjürgens, 2000. "The Influence of Knut Wicksell on Richard Musgrave and James Buchanan," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 103(1), pages 95-116, April.
    9. Stigler, George J & Friedland, Claire, 1975. "The Citation Practices of Doctorates in Economics," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 83(3), pages 477-507, June.
    10. Quandt, Richard E, 1976. "Some Quantitative Aspects of the Economics Journal Literature," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 84(4), pages 741-755, August.
    11. James M. Buchanan, 1949. "The Pure Theory of Government Finance: A Suggested Approach," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 57(6), pages 496-496.
    12. James M. Buchanan & Richard A. Musgrave, 1999. "Public Finance and Public Choice: Two Contrasting Visions of the State," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262024624, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Alain Marciano, 2019. "Buchanan and public finance: The tennessee years," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 32(1), pages 21-46, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bernd Hansjürgens, 2000. "The Influence of Knut Wicksell on Richard Musgrave and James Buchanan," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 103(1), pages 95-116, April.
    2. Marianne Johnson, 2011. "Wicksell and the Scandinavian and public choice traditions," International Journal of Social Economics, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 38(7), pages 584-594, June.
    3. Marianne Johnson, 2018. "Rules versus authorities," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 175(3), pages 219-228, June.
    4. Peter Boettke, 2018. "Economics and Public Administration," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 84(4), pages 938-959, April.
    5. Richard Wagner, 1988. "The Calculus of consent: A Wicksellian retrospective," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 56(2), pages 153-166, February.
    6. Medoff, Marshall H., 2003. "Collaboration and the quality of economics research," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 10(5), pages 597-608, October.
    7. Maxime Desmarais-Tremblay, 2017. "Paternalism and the public household. On the domestic origins of public economics," Documents de travail du Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne 17032, Université Panthéon-Sorbonne (Paris 1), Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne.
    8. Daniel S. Hamermesh, 2018. "Citations in Economics: Measurement, Uses, and Impacts," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 56(1), pages 115-156, March.
    9. Brian C. Albrecht & Joshua R. Hendrickson & Alexander William Salter, 2022. "Evolution, uncertainty, and the asymptotic efficiency of policy," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 192(1), pages 169-188, July.
    10. Maxime Desmarais-Tremblay, 2014. "On the Definition of Public Goods. Assessing Richard A. Musgrave's contribution," Documents de travail du Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne 14004, Université Panthéon-Sorbonne (Paris 1), Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne.
    11. Peter Boettke & John Kroencke, 2020. "The real purpose of the program: a case study in James M. Buchanan’s efforts at academic entrepreneurship to “save the books” in economics," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 183(3), pages 227-245, June.
    12. Horn, Karen, 2011. "James M. Buchanan – Doing away with discrimination and domination," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 80(2), pages 358-366.
    13. Charles B. Blankart, 2016. "Public Choice and Public Finance: A Survey," CESifo Working Paper Series 5819, CESifo.
    14. Béatrice CHERRIER & Jean-Baptiste FLEURY, 2014. "Whose values? The Rise, Fragmentation and Marginalization of Collective Choice in Postwar Economics, 1940-1981," Economics Working Paper from Condorcet Center for political Economy at CREM-CNRS 2014-05-ccr, Condorcet Center for political Economy.
    15. Hans-Werner Sinn, 2009. "Please bring me the New York Times," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 16(1), pages 124-135, February.
    16. Kenneth W. Clements & Patricia Wang, 2003. "Who Cites What?," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 79(245), pages 229-244, June.
    17. Alain Marciano, 2018. "From Highway to Clubs: Buchanan and the Pricing of Public Goods," Post-Print hal-02550420, HAL.
    18. Randall G. Holcombe, 2015. "Unanimous consent and constitutional economics," Chapters, in: Jac C. Heckelman & Nicholas R. Miller (ed.), Handbook of Social Choice and Voting, chapter 3, pages 35-53, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    19. Yihui Lan & Kenneth W. Clements & Zong Ken Chai, 2023. "How Productive Are Economics and Finance PhDs?," Australian Economic Review, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, vol. 56(4), pages 442-461, December.
    20. Paolo Silvestri, 2021. "Percentage tax designation institutions. On Sugden’s contractarian account," International Review of Economics, Springer;Happiness Economics and Interpersonal Relations (HEIRS), vol. 68(1), pages 101-130, March.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:ajecsc:v:64:y:2005:i:4:p:1049-1071. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0002-9246 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.