Most liberal constitutional theorizing, as exemplified by Buchanan (1975) and Rawls (1971), treats societies as closed systems of human interaction. This treatment is carried forward by emphasizing the similarity between choosing constitutional rules and choosing the rules for playing a parlor...

1. Macroeconomics as Systems Theory: Setting the Stage -- 2. Models of Social Order: Mechanical vs. Creative -- 3. Structures of Production and Properties of Social Order -- 4. Diachronic Action within an Ecology of Plans -- 5. Kaleidic Economies and Internally Generated Change -- 6. Entangled...

Most liberal constitutional theorizing, as exemplified by Buchanan (1975) and Rawls (1971), Operates with a two-level scheme of analysis. The first level entails agreement on the rules through which a polity is constituted; the second level entails self-interested action inside that framework of...

This paper uses the 19th century concern with “the social question” as a vehicle to explore how the theories we use can shape, for better or for worse, our insights into our subjects of interest. Contemporary thinking mostly channels the social question into a focus on inequality in the...