Economics Dictionary of ArgumentsHome
| |||
|
| |||
| Government policy: Government policy refers to a set of principles, guidelines, or actions established by a governing body to address specific issues or achieve desired outcomes within a society or economy, such as economic growth, social welfare, healthcare, education, or foreign relations. See also Government budget, Government debt, Politics, Society, Economy._____________Annotation: The above characterizations of concepts are neither definitions nor exhausting presentations of problems related to them. Instead, they are intended to give a short introduction to the contributions below. – Lexicon of Arguments. | |||
| Author | Concept | Summary/Quotes | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
|
James M. Buchanan on Government Policy - Dictionary of Arguments
Boudreaux I 38 Government policy/Buchanan/Boudreaux/Holcombe: Subjectivity: Because cost is subjective, different individuals might make different choices in the same situations, and both could be the best choices for those individuals. Taxation/Government policy: Similar implications apply to public-policy measures. The impossibility of observing and objectively measuring costs means that the kinds of corrective taxes that most economists recommend to deal with carbon emissions and other such externalities cannot be conclusively justified. Boudreaux I 39 Solution/Buchanan: [Buchanan] did not believe that we can never sensibly judge whether one policy is better or worse than any other. Among the policies that he supported are those that enhance the ability of all affected parties to bargain with each other, with each party possessing the right to reject offers that that party finds unappealing. Such bargaining allows each affected individual to reveal, through his or her own choices, whether or not he or she finds some cost to be worth paying. Put differently, the important implication of Buchanan’s theory is that, whenever possible, disputes and conflicts are best handled by having affected individuals bargain among themselves rather than by having third parties - in practice, by having government officials - impose “solutions.” This recommendation that individuals bargain amongst themselves raises the question of how they can actually do so in order to resolve conflicts and to produce collective goods. Much of Buchanan’s research dealt with exactly this challenge. >Externalities/Buchanan. Boudreaux I 49 Economists, even in the twenty-first century, tend to evaluate government action as if government officials apolitically implement optimal public policies. Economists derive the theoretical optimal allocation of resources and then assume that government will act to achieve this optimal allocation. BuchananVsTradition: Buchanan’s fundamental contribution was to note that just as resources are not typically allocated in markets with perfect efficiency, neither are they typically allocated by government with perfect efficiency. Economists tend to benchmark real-world problems of market allocation of resources against a theoretical ideal that, in reality, is never attainable. Buchanan argued that the same tools and assumptions that economists use to analyze the operation of markets should also be used to analyze political decision-making, so that real-world markets are compared to real-world government allocations, rather than comparing actual market outcomes to unattainable government-engineered ideals. >Government failure/Buchanan._____________Explanation of symbols: Roman numerals indicate the source, arabic numerals indicate the page number. The corresponding books are indicated on the right hand side. ((s)…): Comment by the sender of the contribution. Translations: Dictionary of Arguments The note [Concept/Author], [Author1]Vs[Author2] or [Author]Vs[term] resp. "problem:"/"solution:", "old:"/"new:" and "thesis:" is an addition from the Dictionary of Arguments. If a German edition is specified, the page numbers refer to this edition. |
EconBuchan I James M. Buchanan Politics as Public Choice Carmel, IN 2000 Boudreaux I Donald J. Boudreaux Randall G. Holcombe The Essential James Buchanan Vancouver: The Fraser Institute 2021 Boudreaux II Donald J. Boudreaux The Essential Hayek Vancouver: Fraser Institute 2014 |
||
Authors A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Concepts A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
