The Rise of Government Law Enforcement in England

Nicholas A. Curott and Edward P. Stringham

Chapter Chapter 2 in The Pursuit of Justice, 2010, pp 19-36 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract Public choice economics is often referred to as the study of “politics without the romance” (Buchanan 1999). Instead of simply assuming that government agents are benevolent pursuers of the public good, public choice models them as real-life individuals who have desires and concerns of their own. From this perspective, it becomes natural to consider the possibility that any given government policy may have been created to satisfy private special interests rather than the interest of the general public (Buchanan and Tullock 1962). With its insistence on rigorous analytical tools and realistic methodology, the ascendance of public choice has simultaneously modernized research on the political process as well as engendered a healthy dose of skepticism regarding the desirability of previously accepted government functions. Curiously, the romantic, public interest notion of government retains a lingering influence in the scholarship on law. The romantic view of the law can even be found in the writings of the founders of public choice.1

Keywords: Legal System; Public Choice; Royal Court; Germanic Tribe; Norman Conquest (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:palchp:978-0-230-10949-0_2

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DOI: 10.1057/9780230109490_2

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