Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-v2bm5 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-11T02:20:02.890Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

10 - Musgrave and the Idea of Community

from Part II - Developing Modern Welfare Economics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 March 2021

By
Maxime Desmarais-Tremblay
Edited by
Roger E. Backhouse ,
Antoinette Baujard  and
Tamotsu Nishizawa
Roger E. Backhouse
Affiliation:
University of Birmingham and Erasmus University Rotterdam
Antoinette Baujard
Affiliation:
Université de Lyon et Université Jean Monnet à Saint-Étienne
Tamotsu Nishizawa
Affiliation:
Teikyo University Japan
Get access

Summary

Richard A. Musgrave (1910-2007) is the architect of modern public finance. Born and educated in Germany, Musgrave was a widely read scholar who fought attempts to narrow the scope and methods of economics. He had always been critical of what we now call welfarism, and more generally of strict methodological individualism. This chapter reviews the history of Musgrave’s connection with the idea of community. Musgrave’s limited opening – often implicit – for the idea of community provides a basis for an alternative conception of welfare. He realised the importance of a social or communal frame late in his life and left cursory remarks. Musgrave never fully articulated a coherent vision of what the idea of community belonging might entail for a democratic theory of the government’s budget. Yet, securing an ontological status for societies or communities allowed him to theorise a larger scope for public interventions than other economic models of the state. It provided a new meaning to his concept of merit wants. Reframing merit wants as ‘community wants’ is explained by the revival of moral and political philosophy in the 1970s and revisiting older German theories.

Keywords

MusgraveRichard A.RawlsJohnmerit goodsmerit wantspublic goodsmethodological individualismcommunitycommunitarianismpublic financepublic economicshistory of economics
Type
Chapter
Information
Welfare Theory, Public Action, and Ethical Values
Revisiting the History of Welfare Economics
 , pp. 232 - 255
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Amadae, Sonja M. 2003. Rationalizing Capitalist Democracy: The Cold War Origins of Rational Choice Liberalism. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Atkinson, Anthony B., Cnossen, Sijbren, Ladd, Helen F., Mieszkowski, Peter, Pestieau, Pierre, and Samuelson, Paul A.. 2008. ‘Commemorating Richard Musgrave (1910–2007)’. FinanzArchiv: Public Finance Analysis 64(2): 145–70.Google Scholar
Bok, P. Mackenzie. 2015. ‘To the Mountaintop Again: The Early Rawls and Post-Protestant Ethics in Postwar America’. Modern Intellectual History: 1–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buchanan, James M. 1949. ‘The Pure Theory of Government Finance: A Suggested Approach’. The Journal of Political Economy 57(6): 496–505.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buchanan, James M., and Tullock, Gordon. 1962. The Calculus of Consent. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Cherrier, Beatrice, and Fleury, Jean-Baptiste. 2017. ‘Economists’ Interest in Collective Decision after World War II: A History’. Public Choice 172(1–2): 23–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cooter, Robert D. 1975. ‘What Is the Public Interest’. PhD dissertation. Harvard University.Google Scholar
Cooter, Robert D., and Rappoport, Peter. 1984. ‘Were the Ordinalists Wrong about Welfare Economics?’ Journal of Economic Literature 22(2): 507–30.Google Scholar
Davis, John B. 1990. ‘Cooter and Rappoport on the Normative’. Economics and Philosophy 6(1): 139–46.Google Scholar
Desmarais-Tremblay, Maxime. 2014. ‘Normative and Positive Theories of Public Finance: Contrasting Musgrave and Buchanan’. Journal of Economic Methodology 21(3): 273–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Desmarais-Tremblay, Maxime 2017a. ‘A Genealogy of the Concept of Merit Wants’. The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought 24(3): 409–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Desmarais-Tremblay, Maxime 2017b. ‘Musgrave, Samuelson, and the Crystallization of the Standard Rationale for Public Goods’. History of Political Economy 49(1): 59–92.Google Scholar
Desmarais-Tremblay, Maxime 2019. ‘The Normative Problem of Merit Goods in Perspective’. Forum for Social Economics 48(3): 219–47.Google Scholar
Desmarais-Tremblay, Maxime in press. ‘Généalogie du principe d’équité horizontale: Une contribution à l’histoire de la normativité en théorie des finances publiques’. Revue de philosophie économique.Google Scholar
Desmarais-Tremblay, Maxime, and Johnson, Marianne. 2019. ‘“The Fiscal Policy Seminar: Its Early Stages” by Richard A. Musgrave’. Research in the History of Economic Thought and Methodology 37 C: 147–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Forrester, Katrina. 2019. In the Shadow of Justice: Postwar Liberalism and the Remaking of Political Philosophy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Gutmann, Amy. 1985. ‘Review: Communitarian Critics of Liberalism’. Philosophy & Public Affairs 14(3): 308–22.Google Scholar
Hawi, Rima. 2016. John Rawls – Itinéraire d’un libéral américain vers l’égalité sociale. Paris: Classiques Garnier.Google Scholar
Hayek, Friedrich A. 1944. The Road to Serfdom. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
McCloskey, Deirdre N. 1994. Knowledge and Persuasion in Economics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Medema, Steven G. 2000. ‘“Related Disciplines”: The Professionalization of Public Choice Analysis’. History of Political Economy 32 (Supplement): 289–324.Google Scholar
Musgrave, Richard A. 1937. ‘The Theory of Public Finance and the Concept of “Burden of Taxation”’. PhD dissertation. Harvard University.Google Scholar
Musgrave, Richard A. 1959. The Theory of Public Finance: A Study in Public Economy. New York: McGraw Hill.Google Scholar
Musgrave, Richard A. 1964. ‘Efficiency vs. Equity in Public Finance’. Review of Social Economy 22(1): 1–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Musgrave, Richard A. 1969. ‘Provision for Social Goods’. In Public Economics: An Analysis of Public Production and Consumption and Their Relations to the Private Sectors, edited by Margolis, Julius and Guitton, H., 124–44. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Musgrave, Richard A. 1981. ‘Leviathan Cometh – Or Does He?’ In Public Finance in a Democratic Society. Volume II: Fiscal Doctrine, Growth and Institutions, 200–32. Brighton: Wheatsheaf Books.Google Scholar
Musgrave, Richard A. 1986. Public Finance in a Democratic Society. Volume I: Social Goods, Taxation and Fiscal Policy. New York: New York University Press.Google Scholar
Musgrave, Richard A. 1987. ‘Merit Goods’. The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, edited by Eatwell, John, Milgate, Murray, and Newman, Peter, 1958–60. London: Palgrave, 452–3.Google Scholar
Musgrave, Richard A. 1996. ‘Public Finance and Finanzwissenschaft Traditions Compared’. In Public Finance in a Democratic Society. Volume III, 2000, 33–80. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.Google Scholar
Musgrave, Richard A. 1997. ‘Crossing Traditions’. In Zur Deutschsprachigen Wirtschaftswissenschaftlichen Emigration Nach 1933, edited by Hagemann, Harald, 63–79. Marburg: Metropolis-Verlag.Google Scholar
Musgrave, Richard A., and Buchanan, James M.. 1999. Public Finance and Public Choice: Two Contrasting Visions of the State. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Musgrave, Richard A., and Musgrave, Peggy B.. 1976. Public Finance in Theory and Practice. 2nd ed. New York: McGraw Hill.Google Scholar
Musgrave, Richard A., and Musgrave, Peggy B. 1980. Public Finance in Theory and Practice. 3rd ed. New York: McGraw Hill.Google Scholar
Nagel, Thomas. 2013. ‘Foreword’. In Anarchy, State, and Utopia, by Nozick, Robert, xi–xviii. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Nozick, Robert. 1974. Anarchy, State, and Utopia. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Pareto, Vilfredo. 1898. ‘Comment se pose le problème de l’économie pure’. Reprinted in Cahiers Vilfredo Pareto 1(1): 121–30 (1963).Google Scholar
Pigou, Arthur Cecil. 1928. A Study in Public Finance. 3rd ed., 1960. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Pigou, Arthur Cecil 1932. The Economics of Welfare. 4th ed. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Rau, Karl Heinrich. 1837. Lehrbuch der Politischen Oekonomie. Grundsätze der Volkswirtschaftslehre. French translation of the 3rd ed. Traité d’économie nationale. 1839. Brussels: Société Belge de Librairie. Hauman et cie.Google Scholar
Rawls, John. 1971. A Theory of Justice. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Rawls, John 2009. A Brief Inquiry into the Meaning of Sin and Faith: An Interpretation Based on the Concept of Community, edited by Nagel, Thomas. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Read, Colin. 2016. ‘The Early Life of Richard Musgrave’. In The Public Financiers, 144–9. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reiner, Toby. 2011. ‘The Sources of Communitarianism on the American Left: Pluralism, Republicanism, and Participatory Democracy’. History of European Ideas 37(3). 293–303.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ritschl, Hans. 1931. Gemeinwirtschaft und Kapitalistische Marktwirtschaft. Tübingen: J. C. B. Mohr (Paul Siebeck).Google Scholar
Roemer, John E. 1996. Theories of Distributive Justice. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Sax, Emil. 1924. ‘Die Wertungstheorie der Steuer’. Zeitschrift für Volkswirthchaft und Sozialpolitik 4(4–6): 191–240.Google Scholar
Schmoller, Gustav. 1900. Grundriß der Allgemeinen Volkswirtschaftslehre. French translation Principes d’économie politique. 1905. Paris: V. Giard et E. Brière.Google Scholar
Schumpeter, Joseph A. 1908. The Nature and Essence of Economic Theory. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers. Translated by Bruce A. McDaniel from Das Wesen und der Hauptinhalt der theoretischen Nationalökonomie. 2010.Google Scholar
Sen, Amartya K. 1970a. ‘Interpersonal Aggregation and Partial Comparability’. Econometrica 38(3): 393–409.Google Scholar
Sen, Amartya K. 1970b. Collective Choice and Social Welfare. London: Penguin. 2017 Extended Edition.Google Scholar
Sen, Amartya K. 1977. ‘Rational Fools: A Critique of the Behavioral Foundations of Economic Theory’. Philosophy and Public Affairs 6(4): 317–44.Google Scholar
Sinn, Hans-Werner. 2009. ‘Please Bring Me the New York Times: On the European Roots of Richard Abel Musgrave’. International Tax and Public Finance 16(1): 124–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sturn, Richard. 2016a. ‘Public Economics’. In Handbook on the History of Economic Analysis. Volume III: Developments in Major Fields of Economics, edited by Faccarello, Gilbert and Kurz, Heinz D., 480–98. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.Google Scholar
Sturn, Richard 2016b. ‘Richard Abel Musgrave (1910–2007)’. In Handbook on the History of Economic Analysis. Volume I: Great Economists since Petty and Boisguilbert, edited by Faccarello, Gilbert and Kurz, Heinz D., 634–37. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.Google Scholar
Taylor, Charles. 1990. ‘Irreducibly Social Goods’. In Rationality, Individualism, and Public Policy, edited by Brennan, Geoffrey and Walsh, Cliff, 45–63. Canberra: Centre for Research on Federal Financial Relations, the Australian National University.Google Scholar
Tönnies, Ferdinand. 1887. Gemeinschaft und Gesellschaft. Translated as Community and Civil Society by Harris, Jose. 2001. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Tribe, Keith. 1988. Governing Economy: The Reformation of German Economic Discourse 1750–1840. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Unger, Roberto Mangabeira. 1975. Knowledge and Politics. New York: The Free Press.Google Scholar
Wagner, Adolph. 1892. Lehr- und Handbuch der Politischen Oekonomie. Grundlegung der Politischen Oekonomie. 3rd ed. Translated in French as Les fondements de l’économie politique. 1904. Paris: V. Giard et E. Brière.Google Scholar
Weber, Max. 1922. Wirthschaft und Gesellschaft. Tübingen: J. C. B. Mohr (Paul Siebeck). A new English translation of Economy and Society by Keith Tribe. 2019. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×