Politics as Exchange?

Geoffrey Brennan and Hartmut Kliemt ()
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Hartmut Kliemt: University of Duisburg-Essen

Homo Oeconomicus: Journal of Behavioral and Institutional Economics, 2023, vol. 40, issue 1, No 4, 39-59

Abstract: Abstract Buchanan, Sugden and Vanberg claim that constitutional political economics should conceptualize ‘politics as exchange’. Since this theoretical conceptualization is not true in fact the underlying universalist perspective of ‘normative individualism’ needs to be imposed by the theorist contrary to the value-neutrality requirement of economics as a science. ‘Ethics in terms of hypothetical imperatives’ can avoid this imposition by addressing only those who as a matter of fact might happen to share certain particular ends. Only such a ‘to-whom-it-concerns’, non-inclusive relativity of constitutional/institutional advice is compatible with the ideals of ‘politics without romance’ and ‘value-neutrality’ in science-based constitutional mechanism design.

Keywords: Politics without romance; Politics as exchange; Public choice; Contractarianism; Buchanan; Sugden; Vanberg; Critical realism; Technology (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A B D (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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DOI: 10.1007/s41412-022-00128-5

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