The Virginia School's economics of natural equals makes consent critical for policy. Democracy is understood as government by discussion, not majority rule. The claim of efficiency unsupported by consent, as common in orthodox economics, appeals to social hierarchy. Politics becomes an act of...

The orthodox view of economic policy holds that public deliberation sets the goals or ends, and then experts select the means to implement these goals. This assumes that experts are no more than trustworthy servants of the public interest. David M. Levy and Sandra J. Peart examine the historical...

"1.1 Introduction Taken separately, the contributions of the best-known principals of the early Virginia School of Political Economy - James Buchanan, Gordon Tullock, and Ronald Coase - are monuments of twentieth century economics. Yet despite their longstanding collaborations, significant...