This paper provides an overview of Buchanan's constitutional political economy, as it emerged over the course of fifty years. This was the field in which James Buchanan devoted the most effort and to which he made the largest contributions. Although the finely grained arguments that he developed...

The quest for benefit from existing wealth or by seeking privileged benefit through influence over policy is known as rent seeking. Much rent seeking activity involves government and political decisions and is therefore in the domain of political economy, although rent seeking can also take...

This paper develops a model of self-interested norm-driven behavior and uses it to analyze public policy formation within a democracy. If voters are concerned with broad normative issues, politicians will take policy positions in part to advance voter interests in "virtue" or "the public...