IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/revpoe/v19y2007i2p165-180.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Thinking Things Through: The Value and Limitations of James Buchanan's Public Choice Theory

Author

Listed:
  • Bart Engelen

Abstract

James Buchanan, one of the founders of Public Choice theory, applies the conceptual apparatus of economics to the public domain. This article investigates which assumptions are crucial to Buchanan's project, concentrating on methodological individualism and the Homo Economicus model. It shows that Buchanan from time to time moves away from these economic concepts, though only in minor ways. The article also focuses on Buchanan's normative emphasis on the role of institutions in coordinating self-interested individual actions in mutually beneficial ways. Criticizing Buchanan's analysis, the article argues that a broader view of the individual and of the role of institutions is necessary in a theory of constitutional choice.

Suggested Citation

  • Bart Engelen, 2007. "Thinking Things Through: The Value and Limitations of James Buchanan's Public Choice Theory," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(2), pages 165-180.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:revpoe:v:19:y:2007:i:2:p:165-180
    DOI: 10.1080/09538250701256714
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09538250701256714
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/09538250701256714?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Dominik Aaken & Andreas Ostermaier & Arnold Picot, 2014. "Privacy and Freedom: An Economic (Re-)Evaluation of Privacy," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 67(2), pages 133-155, May.
    2. Shengyue Fan & Xijing Luo & Peitao Han, 2023. "Conflict Resolution between Multi-Level Government and Farmers in Land Expropriation Based on Institutional Credibility Theory: Empirical Evidence from Shandong Province, China," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-22, April.
    3. Deserai Crow, 2009. "Responsive Public Officials and Engaged Citizens: Myth or Reality? A Case Study of Water Rights Policy in Colorado," Public Organization Review, Springer, vol. 9(2), pages 119-138, June.
    4. Vicini, Andrea, 2011. "The Public Choice and the traditional view of political science," MPRA Paper 60238, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised Oct 2014.

    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:taf:revpoe:v:19:y:2007:i:2:p:165-180. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/CRPE20 .

    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.