From Classical Liberalism to Democratic Optimism : James M. Buchanan and Elinor Ostrom

This year marks the sixtieth anniversary of the book that established the field of public choice – The Calculus of Consent by James M. Buchanan and Gordon Tullock. The year is also the thirtieth anniversary of Elinor Ostrom’s “Covenants With and Without a Sword,” in which she demonstrated the capacity of individuals to self-governance without submission to an external authority. This paper considers these two foundational works as a starting point from which to explore the historiography of assumptions about human behavior and the intellectual tradition of ‘democratic optimism’ in public choice. The Buchanan-Ostrom legacy is an unshakable faith in the ability of individuals to self-governance, a significant departure from more orthodox thinking that presumed the necessity of a social planner to oversee, coordinate, and enforce collective actions. Their work also illustrates the importance of questioning the assumptions of economic models and modes of thought. Serious examination of antecedent assumptions is useful not only for understanding the depth and complexity of economic and political choices, it is also useful for thinking about the history of the economics discipline, the viability of research programs, and the ‘danger of self-evident truths.’