The Sound of Silence: A Review Essay of Nancy MacLean's Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right's Stealth Plan for America

Jean-Baptiste Fleury and Alain Marciano

Journal of Economic Literature, 2018, vol. 56, issue 4, 1492-1537

Abstract: This essay reviews Nancy MacLean's Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right's Stealth Plan for America, which triggered a huge controversy that virally spread on the internet and in various journals. We will evaluate MacLean's almost biographical account of James Buchanan, which portrays the 1986 Nobel Prize laureate as the mastermind behind today's attacks, by the foot soldiers of the radical right, on American democracy. This essay develops three main points. One, MacLean's general narrative puts too much emphasis on Buchanan and largely neglects the many other important characters who contributed to the intellectual criticism of government intervention. Two, MacLean's account is marred by many misunderstandings about public choice theory, for instance about the role that simple majority rule plays in constitutional economics. Third, in the midst of abundant archival material, her historical narrative is, at best sketchy, and is replete with significantly flawed arguments, misplaced citations, and dubious conjectures. Overall, MacLean tends to overinterpret certain aspects in Buchanan's life and thought, while she overlooks others that are equally important in understanding his work and influence. In particular, we stress that Buchanan was, first and foremost, a scholar, not a political activist, who gave significant attention to ethical considerations in his analysis of markets.

JEL-codes: A11 B21 B31 D72 K00 N42 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
Note: DOI: 10.1257/jel.20181502
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/jel.20181502 (application/pdf)
https://www.aeaweb.org/articles/attachments?retrie ... DVnvOJaLocw7_PXKrVnx (application/zip)
Access to full text is restricted to AEA members and institutional subscribers.

Related works:
Working Paper: The Sound of Silence A Review Essay of Nancy MacLean's Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right's Stealth Plan for America (2018)
Working Paper: The Sound of Silence: A Review Essay of Nancy MacLean’s Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America (2018)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aea:jeclit:v:56:y:2018:i:4:p:1492-1537

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.aeaweb.org/journals/subscriptions

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Economic Literature is currently edited by Steven Durlauf

More articles in Journal of Economic Literature from American Economic Association Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Michael P. Albert ().