Public Finance or Public Choice? Scholastic Political Economy as an Essentialist Synthesis

Mohammadhosein Bahmanpour-Khalesi () and Mohammadjavad Sharifzadeh
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Mohammadhosein Bahmanpour-Khalesi: Imam Sadiq University
Mohammadjavad Sharifzadeh: Imam Sadiq University

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Abstract: Nowadays, it is thought that there are only two approaches to political economy: public finance and public choice; however, this research aims to introduce a new insight by investigating scholastic sources. We study the relevant classic books from the thirteenth to the seventeenth centuries and reevaluate the scholastic literature based on public finance and public choice doctrines. The findings confirm that the government is the institution for realizing the common good according to a scholastic attitude. Therefore, scholastic thinkers saw a typical government mission based on their essentialist attitude toward human happiness. Social conflicts and lack of social consent are the product of diversification in ends and desires; hence, if the ends of humans were unified, there would be no conflict of interest. Accordingly, if the government acts according to its assigned mission, the lack of public consent is not significant. Based on the scholastic point of view, this study introduces the third approach to political economy, which can be considered an analytical synthesis of classical doctrines.

Keywords: Scholastic Economics; Essentialism; Political Economy; Public Finance; Public Choice; Arrow's impossibility (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hpe
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Published in International Journal of New Political Economy , 2024, 5 (1), pp.217-238. ⟨10.52547/jep.5.1.217⟩

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04614845

DOI: 10.52547/jep.5.1.217

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