James M. Buchanan and the Soul of Classical Political Economy

Boettke and Marciano’s The Soul of Classical Political Economy curates ten previously unpublished works by James M. Buchanan. The editorial introductions to these are independently valuable as scholarly works; they shed light on the context in which the papers, essays, and letters were written and draw important connections across Buchanan’s different writings. In this essay, I consider Buchanan on classical liberalism, Knut Wicksell, and the role of the economist in light of these newly available writings. The book and essay should prove of interest not only to historians of economics, but to scholars and economists generally, as Buchanan’s views on the classical tradition provide important philosophical support for the entire neoliberal enterprise, particularly as it relates to public policy, public economics, and public choice