Social order through constitutional choice: A contractarian proposal

Niclas Berggren

No 108, SSE/EFI Working Paper Series in Economics and Finance from Stockholm School of Economics

Abstract: The present paper consists of two closely related parts: one which outlines a normative criterion for evaluating the legitimacy of constitutional change and one which specifies a particular proposal of a constitution. The criterion used stems directly from the "pragmatic" brand of contractarianism developed by Buchanan, where an approximate rule of unanimity is utilized. The proposal aims at the highest possible freedom of choice for individuals when it comes to defining the political system of their liking: a core (dealing with public goods and rights) is common for all, but everything else can vary between different sub-constitutions between which individuals choose.

Keywords: Constitution; veil of ignorance; social contract; institutional competition; federalism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D63 D70 H11 H70 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 31 pages
Date: 1996-03
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Published in Public Choice, 1996, pages 339-361

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
Journal Article: Social Order through Constitutional Choice: A Contractarian Proposal (1996)
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:hhs:hastef:0108

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in SSE/EFI Working Paper Series in Economics and Finance from Stockholm School of Economics The Economic Research Institute, Stockholm School of Economics, P.O. Box 6501, 113 83 Stockholm, Sweden. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Helena Lundin ().