James Buchanan

James McGill Buchanan, Jr. (born October 3, 1919) is an American economist renowned for his work on public choice theory, for which he won the 1986 Nobel Prize in Economics. Buchanan's work opened the door for the examination of how politicians' self-interest and non-economic forces affect government economic policy.

Career

Buchanan graduated from Middle Tennessee Normal School in 1940. He completed his M.S. from the University of Tennessee in 1941 and his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1948.

Buchanan has long been a professor at George Mason University, and is a central figure in the Virginia school of political economy. Buchanan also held teaching positions at the University of Virginia (founding the Thomas Jefferson center), UCLA, Florida State University, the University of Tennessee, and the Virginia Polytechnic Institute (with the Center for the Study of Public Choice). Buchanan moved with the center to its new home at GMU.

Views

In an interview for the BBC series 'The Trap', Buchanan criticised the notion of the "public interest", asking what it is and suggesting that it consists purely of the self-interest of the governing bureaucrats. Buchanan also proposes that organisations should employ managers who are motivated only by money. He describes those who are motivated by other factors—such as job satisfaction or a sense of public duty—as "zealots".

Affiliations

• David Hume Institute
• Independent Institute
• Walter Eucken Institut

Resources, Publications, contact, Notes

Resources

• Wikipedia James M. Buchanan

List of publications

• The Collected Works of James M. Buchanan by James M. Buchanan, at the Library of Economics and Liberty. Multi-volume work; copyrighted but free to read and access; fully searchable online. Includes:
• Public Principles of Public Debt: A Defense and Restatement, by James M. Buchanan, at the Library of Economics and Liberty
• The Calculus of Consent: Logical Foundations of Constitutional Democracy, by James M. Buchanan and Gordon Tullock, at the Library of Economics and Liberty
• Public Finance in Democratic Process: Fiscal Institutions and Individual Choice, by James M. Buchanan, at the Library of Economics and Liberty
• The Demand and Supply of Public Goods, by James M. Buchanan, at the Library of Economics and Liberty
• Cost and Choice: An Inquiry in Economic Theory, by James M. Buchanan, at the Library of Economics and Liberty
• The Limits of Liberty: Between Anarchy and Leviathan, by James M. Buchanan, at the Library of Economics and Liberty
• Democracy in Deficit: The Political Legacy of Lord Keynes, by James M. Buchanan and Richard E. Wagner, at the Library of Economics and Liberty
• The Power to Tax: Analytical Foundations of a Fiscal Constitution, by Geoffrey Brennan and James M. Buchanan, at the Library of Economics and Liberty
• The Reason of Rules: Constitutional Political Economy, by Geoffrey Brennan and James M. Buchanan, at the Library of Economics and Liberty
• Why I, Too, Am Not a Conservative: The Normative Vision of Classical Liberalism (2006)