Politics by Principle, Not Interest: Toward Nondiscriminatory Democracy / Edition 1

by James M. Buchanan, Roger D. Congleton

Overview

“Politics by principle is that which modern politics is not. What we observe is ‘politics by interest,’ whether in the form of explicitly discriminatory treatment (rewarding or punishing) of particular groupings of citizens or of some elitist-dirigiste classification of citizens into the deserving or non-deserving on the basis of a presumed superior wisdom about what is really ‘good’ for us all. The proper principle for politics is that of generalization of generality.”

—James M. Buchanan, from the Preface

In his foreword, Hartmut Kliemt sums up the main objective of James M. Buchanan and Roger Congleton’s Politics by Principle: “Imposing constitutional constraints on majoritarian politics such that a more principled pattern might emerge must be a political aim of high priority for all who wish for free and responsible citizens to live together peacefully as political equals under the rule of general laws. Buchanan and Congleton’s efforts to revive the classical liberal agenda in Politics by Principle, Not Interest are of the greatest interest in that regard. And this interest is not merely a theoretical one.”

As James Buchanan notes in introducing his co-author Roger Congleton, Politics by Principle, Not Interest “embodies the working out and presentation of a single idea . . . the extension and application of the generality principle to majoritarian politics.” After laying out the theory, Buchanan and Congleton attempt to work it out in practical political reality. Buchanan notes that “it is much easier to discuss the generality principle as an abstract ideal than it is to define the precise conditions for its satisfaction in any particular setting.” Not daunted by the difficulty of the task, the two authors succeed brilliantly in applying the generality principle to the political arena. They are interested not in laying down precise do’s and don’ts for politics, but in pointing out the ideal of nondiscriminatory governance and calling for constitutional constraints on political action so it conforms more closely to the generality norm.

James M. Buchanan (1919–2013) was an eminent economist who won the Alfred Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1986 and was considered one of the greatest scholars of liberty in the twentieth century.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780865972346
Publisher:	Liberty Fund, Incorporated
Publication date:	06/25/2003
Series:	The Collected Works of James M. Buchanan , #11
Edition description:	Volume 11
Pages:	242
Sales rank:	876,219
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.60(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

Table of Contents

List of Figures and Tables xi Foreword xiii Preface xix Acknowledgements xxiii

1. Introduction
1. Generality, Law, and Politics 3

2. Analysis
2. Majoritarian Democracy 19
3. Eliminating the Off-Diagonals 35
4. Extending the Argument 55
5. Generality and the Political Agenda 66

3. Application
6. Generality and Externality 81
7. Market Restriction and the Generality Norm 101
8. The Political Effciency of General Taxation 113
9. Deficit Financing and Intertemporal Discrimination 131
10. Generality and the Supply of Public Services 141
11. Generality and Redistribution 159
12. Generality without Uniformity: Social Insurance 176
13. Generality without Uniformity: Federalism 187

4. Prospect
14. The Political Shape of Constitutional Order 199

Index 211

Editorial Reviews

Volume 11 of the collected works of James M. Buchanan, Politics by Principle, Not Interest: Toward Nondiscriminatory Democracy is a visionary discourse of the often unfair means by which politics shapes human affairs, and ways to improve the system so that it better and more accurately represents the needs of humanity. Discussing the strengths and weaknesses of majoritarian democracy, the political efficiency of general taxation, the generality without uniformity that is federalism and much more, Politics by Principle, Not Interest (collaboratively edited by Buchanan and Roger D. Congleton) is a thought-provoking contribution to Political Science Studies and very highly recommended reading.

John Buroughs
The Midwest Book Review

From the Publisher