Synopses & Reviews
This final volume (save for the Index) in Liberty Funds
The Collected Works of James M. Buchanan acquaints us most intimately with the man himself. Included are essays and short pieces that shed light on Buchanans view of the world.
Ranging from personal reflections on the art and science of economics, to restatements of his central themes and reminiscences of his encounters and collaborations with other great thinkers, this volume presents James Buchanan as a multidimensional human being, not just as a great economic and political thinker.
The thirty-three pieces collected in Ideas, Persons, and Events are grouped into these categories:
1.Autobiographical and Personal Reflections
2.Reflections on Fellow Political Economists
3.Political Economy in the Post-Socialist Century
4.Reform without Romance
As Hartmut Kliemt states in his foreword, The personal and the theoretical are often inseparably intertwined in the essays of this volume. . . . As a case in point, consider James Buchanans account of his relationship to Frank Knight. This account not only sheds some interesting light on the personal element in the development of science, it also offers some new perspectives on the concept of the relatively absolute absolutes, which has been so central to Buchanans thinking in general.”
James M. Buchanan is an eminent economist who won the Alfred Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1986 and is considered one of the greatest scholars of liberty in the twentieth century.
The entire series will include:
Volume 1: The Logical Foundations of Constitutional Liberty
Volume 2: Public Principles of Public Debt
Volume 3: The Calculus of Consent
Volume 4: Public Finance in Democratic Process
Volume 5: The Demand and Supply of Public Goods
Volume 6: Cost and Choice
Volume 7: The Limits of Liberty
Volume 8: Democracy in Deficit
Volume 9: The Power to Tax
Volume 10: The Reason of Rules
Volume 11: Politics by Principle, Not Interest
Volume 12: Economic Inquiry and Its Logic
Volume 13: Politics as Public Choice
Volume 14: Debt and Taxes
Volume 15: Externalities and Public Expenditure Theory
Volume 16: Choice, Contract, and Constitutions
Volume 17: Moral Science and Moral Order
Volume 18: Federalism, Liberty, and the Law
Volume 19: Ideas, Persons, and Events
Volume 20: Indexes
Table of Contents
Foreword xi 1.Autobiographical and Personal Reflections
Born-Again Economist 3
From the Inside Looking Out 18
Italian Retrospective 28
Political Economy:1957 –82 38
Virginia Political Economy: Some Personal Reflections 50
A Theory of Truth in Autobiography (James M. Buchanan and Rober D. Tollison) 64 2.Reflections on Fellow Political Economists
Frank H. Knight: 1885 –1972 77
Knight, Frank H. 86
The Qualities of a Natural Economist 95
Preface to Essays on Unorthodox Economic Strategies: A Memorial Volume in Honor of Winston C. Bush 108
Jack Wiseman: A Personal Appreciation 110
I Did Not Call Him ‘‘Fritz ’’: Personal Recollections of Professor F. A. v. Hayek 116
Methods and Morals in Economics: The Ayres-Knight Discussion 123
Economists and the Gains-from-Trade 135
Shackle and a Lecture in Pittsburgh 153
Review of Imagination and the Nature of Choice 158
Review of Politics and Markets: The World ’s Political Economic Systems 162
Liberty, Market and State 165 3.Political Economy in the Post-Socialist Century
America ’Third Century in Perspective 173
Analysis, Ideology and the Events of 1989 187
Politicized Economies in Limbo: America, Europe and the World,1994 199
The Epistemological Feasibility of Free Markets 210
Consumption without Production: The Impossible Idyll of Socialism 221
Economics in the Post-Socialist Century 239
Post-Socialist Political Economy 248
The Triumph of Economic Science: Is Fukuyama Wrong and, If So, Why? 263
Public Choice after Socialism 276 4.Reform without Romance
Adam Smith as Inspiration 289
The Potential for Politics after Socialism 304
I Did Not Call Him ‘‘Fritz ’’: Personal Recollections of Professor F. A. v. Hayek 116
Methods and Morals in Economics: The Ayres-Knight Discussion 123
Economists and the Gains-from-Trade 135
Shackle and a Lecture in Pittsburgh 153
Review of Imagination and the Nature of Choice 158
Review of Politics and Markets:The World ’s Political Economic Systems 162
Liberty, Market and State 165 3.Political Economy in the Post-Socialist Century
America’s Third Century in Perspective 173
Analysis, Ideology and the Events of 1989 187
Politicized Economies in Limbo: America, Europe and the World,1994 199
The Epistemological Feasibility of Free Markets 210
Consumption without Production: The Impossible Idyll of Socialism 221
Economics in the Post-Socialist Century 239
Post-Socialist Political Economy 248
The Triumph of Economic Science: Is Fukuyama Wrong and, If So,Why? 263
Public Choice after Socialism 276 4.Reform without Romance
Adam Smith as Inspiration 289
The Potential for Politics after Socialism 304
Ideas, Institutions, and Political Economy: A Plea for Disestablishment 318
Can Policy Activism Succeed? A Public-Choice Perspective 331
Society and Democracy 344
Reform without Romance: First Principles in Political Economy 356 Name Index 365 Subject Index 369