The Virginia School's economics of natural equals makes consent critical for policy. Democracy is understood as government by discussion, not majority rule. The claim of efficiency unsupported by consent, as common in orthodox economics, appeals to social hierarchy. Politics becomes an act of...

This book - the first of two volumes- looks at episodes in American economic history from a public choice perspective. Each chapter discusses citizens, special interests, and government officials responding to economic incentives in both markets and politics. In doing so, the book provides fresh...

"1.1 Introduction Taken separately, the contributions of the best-known principals of the early Virginia School of Political Economy - James Buchanan, Gordon Tullock, and Ronald Coase - are monuments of twentieth century economics. Yet despite their longstanding collaborations, significant...