Constitutional political economy, democratic theory and institutional design

Georg Vanberg ()
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Georg Vanberg: Duke University

Public Choice, 2018, vol. 177, issue 3, No 2, 199-216

Abstract: Abstract Democracy and constitutionalism are both central to the Western political tradition. And yet, constitutional restrictions are often perceived to be in tension with democratic commitments. I argue that the constitutional political economy approach developed by Nobel Laureate James Buchanan resolves the tension between constitutionalism and the values of democratic governance by shifting the analysis from a system-attributes perspective that focuses on the particular institutional properties of a political order to a system-legitimacy perspective that focuses on the manner in which political institutions gain democratic legitimacy. In so doing, the approach reveals that constitutionalism can be understood as a natural expression of democratic values.

Keywords: Constitutional political economy; Democratic theory; Constitutionalism; Judicial review (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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DOI: 10.1007/s11127-018-0570-0

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