Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-r5fsc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T06:02:13.055Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Choice, emergence, and constitutional process: a framework for positive analysis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 September 2010

PETRIK RUNST  and
RICHARD E. WAGNER
PETRIK RUNST
Affiliation:
Department of Economics, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA
RICHARD E. WAGNER*
Affiliation:
Department of Economics, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA
*
*Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract:

Constitutional theorizing typically employs a bi-level analytical framework wherein the choice of rules precedes the actions that people pursue within those rules. Constitutions are thus products of planning and are prior to the spontaneous ordering that characterizes market processes. This paper explores an alternative conceptual framework wherein rules and actions are coeval and not sequential. Hence, constitutions are subject to spontaneous ordering just as are ordinary market processes. All societies necessarily possess constitutional frameworks that frame the actions of participants; however, those frameworks are not fully settled prior to action but rather evolve through action, which means, in turn, that constitutions, like societies, are living entities and not background precepts against which societal life evolves.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Institutional Economics , Volume 7 , Issue 1 , March 2011 , pp. 131 - 145
Copyright
Copyright © The JOIE Foundation 2010

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

Ackerman, B. (1998), We, the People, Vol. 2 – Transformations, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Ashenfelter, O., Eisenberg, T., and Schwab, S. J. (1985), ‘The Politics of the Judiciary – the Influence of Judicial Background on Case Outcomes’, Journal of Legal Studies, 24: 257–281.Google Scholar
Boettke, P. J. (2001), ‘Putting the Political Back Into Political Economy’, in Medema, S. and Biddle, J. (eds.), Economics Broadly Conceived: Essays in Honor of Warren Samuels, New York: Routledge, pp. 203–216.Google Scholar
Boettke, P. B. and Aligica, P. D. (2009), Challenging Institutional Analysis and Development, London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Bowles, S. and Gintis, H. (1993), ‘The Revenge of Homo Economicus: Contested Exchange and the Revival of Political Economy’, Journal of Economic Perspectives, 7: 83–102.Google Scholar
Brennan, H. G. and Buchanan, J. M. (1985), The Reason of Rules, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Buchanan, J. M. (1972), ‘Politics, Property, and the Law: An Alternative Interpretation of Miller et al. v. Schoene’, Journal of Law and Economics, 15: 439–452.Google Scholar
Buchanan, J. M. (1975), The Limits of Liberty, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Buchanan, J. M. (1988), ‘The Relatively Absolute Absolutes’, in Buchanan, J. M. (ed.), Essays in the Political Economy, Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.Google Scholar
Buchanan, J. M. (1990), ‘The Domain of Constitutional Economics’, Constitutional Political Economy, 1: 1–18.Google Scholar
Buchanan, J. M. and Samuels, W. J. (1975), ‘On Some Fundamental Issues in Political Economy: An Exchange of Correspondence’, Journal of Economic Issues, 9: 15–38.Google Scholar
Buchanan, J. M. and Tullock, G. (1962), The Calculus of Consent, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Buchanan, J. M. and Wagner, R. E. (1977), Democracy in Deficit, New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Buchman, J. (2007), ‘The Effects of Ideology on Federal Trial Judges' Decisions to Admit Scientific Expert Testimony’, American Politics Research, 35: 671–693.Google Scholar
Choi, S. and Gulati, M. (2008), ‘Bias in Judicial Citations: A Window into the Behavior of Judges’, The Journal of Legal Studies, 37: 87–130.Google Scholar
Coase, R. H. (1960), ‘The Problem of Social Cost’, Journal of Law and Economics, 3: 1–44.Google Scholar
Dam, K. (1977), ‘The American Fiscal Constitution’, University of Chicago Law Review, 44: 271–320.Google Scholar
Elias, N. (1982), The Civilizing Process, New York: Pantheon Books.Google Scholar
Elias, N. (1991), The Society of Individuals, Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Epstein, R. A. (1985), Takings: Private Property and the Power of Eminent Domain, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Eucken, W. (1952), Grundsätze der Wirtschaftpolitik, Tübingen: J.C.B. Mohr.Google Scholar
Fleetwod, S. (2008), ‘Structure, Institution, Agency, Habit, and Reflexive Deliberation’, Journal of Institutional Economics, 4: 183–203.Google Scholar
Hayek, F. A. (1960), The Constitution of Liberty, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Hayek, F. A. (1973–79), Law, Legislation, and Liberty, 3 vols, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Hirshleifer, J. (2001), The Dark Side of the Force: Economic Foundations of Conflict Theory, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Jacobs, J. (1992), Systems of Survival, New York: Random House.Google Scholar
Kingston, C. and Caballero, G. (2009), ‘Comparing Theories of Institutional Change’, Journal of Institutional Economics, 5: 151–181.Google Scholar
Levinson, S. (1988), Constitutional Faith, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
MacCaulay, S. (1963), ‘Non-Contractual Relations in Business: A Preliminary Study’, American Sociological Review, 28: 55–67.Google Scholar
Murrell, P. (2009), ‘Design and Evolution in Institutional Development’, available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1522864Google Scholar
Nussbaum, M. (2001), Upheavals of Thought: The Intelligence of Emotions, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Ostrom, V. (1987), The Political Theory of a Compound Republic, 2nd edn, Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.Google Scholar
Ostrom, V. (1997), The Meaning of Democracy and the Vulnerability of Democracies, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Polanyi, M. (1958), Personal Knowledge, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Posner, E., Choi, S., and Gulati, M. (2008), ‘Professionals or Politicians: The Uncertain Empirical Case for an Elected Rather than Appointed Judiciary’, Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Advance Access published on 5 November 2008, doi:10.1093/jleo/ewn023.Google Scholar
Samuels, W. J. (1971), ‘Interrelations between Legal and Economic Processes’, Journal of Law and Economics, 14: 439–452.Google Scholar
Samuels, W. J. (1972), ‘In Defense of a Positive Approach to Government as an Economic Variable’, Journal of Law and Economics, 15: 453–459.Google Scholar
Schelling, T. C. (1978), Micro Motives and Macro Behavior, New York: W. W. Norton.Google Scholar
Sugden, R. (1989), ‘Spontaneous Order’, Journal of Economic Perspectives, 3: 85–97.Google Scholar
Vanberg, V. (1994), Rules and Choice in Economics, London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Vanberg, V. (2005), Market and State: The Perspective of Constitutional Political Economy, Journal of Institutional Economics, 1: 23–49.Google Scholar
Wagner, R. E. (2006), ‘Retrogressive Regime Drift within a Theory of Emergent Order’, Review of Austrian Economics, 19: 113–123.Google Scholar
Wagner, R. E. (2007), Fiscal Sociology and the Theory of Public Finance, Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar.Google Scholar
Wagner, R. E. (2008), ‘Finding Social Dilemma: West of Babel, Not East of Eden’, Public Choice, 135: 55–66.Google Scholar
Warren, C. (1932), Congress as Santa Claus, Charlottesville, VA: Michie.Google Scholar
Warren, C. (1935), Congress, the Constitution, and the Supreme Court, Boston: Little, Brown.Google Scholar