- Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex
- Charles Beitz, Political Theory and International Relations
- Isaiah Berlin, Four Essays on Liberty
- James Buchanan and Gordon Tullock, The Calculus of Consent
- G. A. Cohen, Karl Marx’s Theory of History—A Defence
- Robert Dahl, A Preface to Democratic Theory
- Anthony Downs, An Economic Theory of Democracy
- Ronald Dworkin, Taking Rights Seriously
- Jon Elster, Sour Grapes
- Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth
- Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish
- Lon Fuller, The Morality of Law
- Hans-Georg Gadamer, Truth and Method
- Paul Gilroy, The Black Atlantic
- Jürgen Habermas, Between Facts and Norms: Contributions to a Discourse Theory of Law and Democracy
- H. L. A. Hart, The Concept of Law
- Bonnie Honig, Political Theory and the Displacement of Politics
- Axel Honneth, The Struggle for Recognition
- Will Kymlicka, Multicultural Citizenship
- Steven Lukes, Power: A Radical View
- Alasdair MacIntyre, After Virtue: An Study in Moral Theory
- C. B. Macpherson, The Political Theory of Possessive Individualism: Hobbes to Locke
- Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man
- Robert Nozick, Anarchy, State, and Utopia
- Michael Oakeshott, On Human Conduct
- Susan Moller Okin, Justice, Gender, and the Family
- Elinor Ostrom, Governing the Commons
- Carole Pateman, The Sexual Contract
- Phillip Pettit, Republicanism: A Theory of Freedom and Government
- Hanna Pitkin, The Concept of Representation
- J. G. A. Pocock, The Machiavellian Moment
- John Rawls, Political Liberalism
- Joseph Raz, The Morality of Freedom
- James Scott, Seeing Like a State
- Judith Shklar, Ordinary Vices
- Quentin Skinner, The Foundations of Modern Political Thought
- Leo Strauss, Natural Right and History
- Charles Taylor, Sources of the Self
- Richard Tuck, Natural Rights Theories
- Jeremy Waldron, Law and Disagreement
- Michael Walzer, Just and Unjust Wars
- Michael Walzer, Spheres of Justice
- Robert Paul Wolff, In Defense of Anarchism
- Sheldon Wolin, Politics and Vision
- Judith Butler, Gender Trouble
- Charles W. Mills, The Racial Contract
Abstract and Keywords
The Calculus of Consent: Logical Foundations of Constitutional Democracy is a groundbreaking work in democratic theory. This chapter argues that it is of continued relevance today, due both to its methodological innovations and its use of those innovative techniques to solve the fundamental problem of democratic justification. In Calculus, James Buchanan and Gordon Tullock fuse economic methods, political theory, and the normative project of showing how democratic institutions of a particular sort can be justified contractually, creating a unique form of democratic contractualism that came to be known as “Constitutional Political Economy” and the more general research program of “Public Choice Theory.” Although these pioneering techniques have been integrated into mainstream political theory, the interest of their normative project has not been similarly appreciated.
Keywords: James Buchanan, Gordon Tullock, contractualism, democratic theory, constitutional political economy, public choice theory
John Thrasher, Monash University
Gerald Gaus is the James E. Rogers Professor of Philosophy at the University of Arizona.
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- Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex
- Charles Beitz, Political Theory and International Relations
- Isaiah Berlin, Four Essays on Liberty
- James Buchanan and Gordon Tullock, The Calculus of Consent
- G. A. Cohen, Karl Marx’s Theory of History—A Defence
- Robert Dahl, A Preface to Democratic Theory
- Anthony Downs, An Economic Theory of Democracy
- Ronald Dworkin, Taking Rights Seriously
- Jon Elster, Sour Grapes
- Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth
- Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish
- Lon Fuller, The Morality of Law
- Hans-Georg Gadamer, Truth and Method
- Paul Gilroy, The Black Atlantic
- Jürgen Habermas, Between Facts and Norms: Contributions to a Discourse Theory of Law and Democracy
- H. L. A. Hart, The Concept of Law
- Bonnie Honig, Political Theory and the Displacement of Politics
- Axel Honneth, The Struggle for Recognition
- Will Kymlicka, Multicultural Citizenship
- Steven Lukes, Power: A Radical View
- Alasdair MacIntyre, After Virtue: An Study in Moral Theory
- C. B. Macpherson, The Political Theory of Possessive Individualism: Hobbes to Locke
- Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man
- Robert Nozick, Anarchy, State, and Utopia
- Michael Oakeshott, On Human Conduct
- Susan Moller Okin, Justice, Gender, and the Family
- Elinor Ostrom, Governing the Commons
- Carole Pateman, The Sexual Contract
- Phillip Pettit, Republicanism: A Theory of Freedom and Government
- Hanna Pitkin, The Concept of Representation
- J. G. A. Pocock, The Machiavellian Moment
- John Rawls, Political Liberalism
- Joseph Raz, The Morality of Freedom
- James Scott, Seeing Like a State
- Judith Shklar, Ordinary Vices
- Quentin Skinner, The Foundations of Modern Political Thought
- Leo Strauss, Natural Right and History
- Charles Taylor, Sources of the Self
- Richard Tuck, Natural Rights Theories
- Jeremy Waldron, Law and Disagreement
- Michael Walzer, Just and Unjust Wars
- Michael Walzer, Spheres of Justice
- Robert Paul Wolff, In Defense of Anarchism
- Sheldon Wolin, Politics and Vision
- Judith Butler, Gender Trouble
- Charles W. Mills, The Racial Contract