The American Journal of Economics and Sociology back issues from January 2004:
Introduction.
Jan 01, 2004; ... Introduction In 1968 a series of events led to the creation of the Center for the Study of Public Choice at Virginia Polytechnic Institute in Blacksburg, Virginia. For the ensuing 15 years the Center was the focus of a large body of research that has come to be known as "public ...
The importance of deviance in intellectual development: especially at Virginia Tech in the 1970s.
Jan 01, 2004; ... Getting my doctorate at Virginia Tech has been both the boon and the bane of my academic career. The source of the boon is well known. I was here at the start of a major intellectual revolution in the study of economics, specifically, public choice economics. Over the intervening three ...
Public choice and deviance: a comment.
Jan 01, 2004; ... Professor McKenzie, in his interesting and insightful paper, puts forth the hypothesis that "deviance" plays a central role in the development of new fields and paradigms of inquiry, and that the success of the deviants is a function of the existence of certain underlying ...
Public choice as an academic enterprise: Charlottesville, Blacksburg, and Fairfax retrospectively viewed.
Jan 01, 2004; ... The purpose of this paper is to explore the success of public choice as an academic enterprise, and to do so by paying particular attention to whatever insights might have resulted from my having been present at all three locations: Charlottesville, Blacksburg, and Fairfax. I am one of ...
Public choice as an academic enterprise retrospectively viewed again.
Jan 01, 2004; ... Dick Wagner's paper views the public choice enterprise from the perspective of someone who was both a graduate student at the University of Virginia and a professor at Virginia Tech and George Mason. My comments are given retrospectively from the point of view of a graduate student at ...
Life in the Putty-Knife Factory!(1)
Jan 01, 2004; ... I Stage Setting THE INTENTION IN THIS PAPER IS TO USE "PUBLIC CHOICE" AS A LENS through which to think about a range of more general questions in the analysis of intellectual/academic activity. There are several rather different ways of approaching this task; in this ...
The quest for meaning in public choice.
Jan 01, 2004; ... I Logical Foundations of Democracies IN OUR EFFORTS TO UNDERSTAND THE LOGICAL FOUNDATIONS of constitutional democracy, we both found that The Calculus of Consent (Buchanan and Tullock 1962) gave us basic tools for acquiring some analytical leverage in addressing ...
Commentary on "the quest for meaning in public choice" by Elinor Ostrom and Vincent Ostrom.
Jan 01, 2004; ... [Hiro:] "We've got two kinds of language in our heads. The kind we're using now is acquired. It patterns our brains as we're learning it. But there's also a tongue that's based in the deep structures of the brain, that everyone shares. These structure consist of basic neural circuits that ...
Bargaining with the devil: commentary on the Ostroms' "quest for meaning in public choice".
Jan 01, 2004; ... What draws my focus in these comments is the relationship between humankind's long-term experiment with government, and public choice theorists' contributions to the understanding of institutions and collective action problems central to government. One attractive facet of the Ostroms' ...
A toy model of scientific progress.
Jan 01, 2004; ... I What is Science for? CONSIDER A TOY SOCIETY THAT INTERACTS WITH HARSH AND CAPRICIOUS NATURE. Every day, in every way, year in and year out, Nature spews out disasters. For convenience, let us say there are 10 possible disasters, and they are numbered 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, ...
Scientific progress and lessons for institutional design: comments on "a toy model of scientific progress" by Susanne Lohmann.
Jan 01, 2004; ... The early years of public choice are closely associated with two universities: the University of Virginia and Virginia Tech (VPI). Scholars at these schools made founding contributions in public choice to help make it what it is today: an inherently interdisciplinary research field, ...
When hard heads collide: a philosopher encounters public choice.
Jan 01, 2004; ... I Introduction IN THE 1970s POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY HAD BEGUN TO ENJOY a renaissance among tough-minded analytical philosophers who previously had scorned it as second cousin to preaching and propagandizing. In part this reinvigoration was a response to real-world ...
What public choice and philosophy should not learn from one another.
Jan 01, 2004; ... Reading Loren Lomasky's sketch of the 1982 Center for the Study of Public Choice induced a strong sense of nostalgia. Although Lomasky's and my paths did not cross, I spent two summers at the Center around that time. As an economist, I did not experience quite the same sense of culture ...
Prudence and constitutional rights.
Jan 01, 2004; ... The object of man's desire is not to enjoy once only and for one instant of time, but to assure forever the way of his future desires. And therefore the voluntary actions and inclinations of all men tend, not only to the procuring, but also to the assuring of a contented life. (Hobbes ...
Comments on McClennen's "prudence and constitutional rights": or how do you turn words into action?
Jan 01, 2004; ... In The Calculus of Consent, Buchanan and Tullock argue, among other things, that institutional safeguards are required to ensure maximal benefit for all members of a community against the potential tyranny of the majority. McClennen extends this idea by introducing prudential concerns and ...
Heraclitian vespers.
Jan 01, 2004; ... By way of preface, let me say that I am no Karl Brunner, who was a past master at offering summations of sometimes disparate papers. A few of you will remember Karl, who visited us in Blacksburg in 1969. You will recall that, during the last two decades of his life, Karl could scarcely ...