James M. Buchanan
James McGill Buchanan, Jr. ( born October 3, 1919 in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, † January 9, 2013 in Blacksburg, Virginia) was an American economist and recipient of the donated by the Bank of Sweden in memory of Alfred Nobel Prize for Economics in the year 1986th His life's work was to prepare an economic theory of the state. He was considered one of the pioneers of the New Political Economy.
Life and work
James M. Buchanan's grandfather was John P. Buchanan (1847-1930), 1891-1893 Governor of Tennessee.
Buchanan's work, in particular for the Public Choice Theory are interdisciplinary and have influence in the social sciences far beyond the narrow circle of economics beyond. Among other things, it was his goal of economic science return their socio-political importance (political economics ). So he used in his 1975 published book Limits of Liberty. Between Anarchy and Leviathan to find, among other things some models and methods of political philosophy, a theoretical support of his economic liberalism. Following on from the contract theory Thomas Hobbes ' he tried doing to anchor legal system, law enforcement and state power state in a contractual agreement rational and realistic individuals. Buchanan's work can be characterized by the following key features:
- Strict distinction in the selection of rules and decision about actions under rules
- Normative and methodological individualism (homo economicus - model)
- Logically interest policy term: Politics is not a truth operation, but is about the exchange process in the face of divergent interests
- Change proposals are to be based always on the Status Quo
- An evaluation of social outcomes is only on the assessment of the relevant decision rules possible ( " That Which emerges from the interaction process is, quite simply, That Which emerges. It is inappropriate to classify any outcome or end -state as better than another" (2001, p 270). )
- Relevant evaluation criterion is the consensus of stakeholders, based on the decision-making process, not the emergent results among these methods.
A significant finding of public choice theory in particular that politicians base their actions rather on their re-election or the highest possible tax revenue, as the common good. Therefore, Buchanan Public choice theory suggests to limit the room for maneuver of policy makers at the national debt by the laws on this. In particular, the provisions on the debt ceiling to the same conclusion.
Buchanan taught for most of his life in Virginia, at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville and at George Mason University in Fairfax.
He was a member of the Mont Pelerin Society and honorary president of the Walter Eucken Institute.