This article considers the applicability of the Coase theorem (in both its positive and normative formulations) to the political market. The article analogizes the choice of decision rules in the political market to the choice of legal rules in the traditional Coase theorem and further...

This paper considers the relative advantages and the respective limits of three main sources of law, namely, (a) legislation; (b) judge-made law; and (c) customary law. The traditional presentation of sources of law is revisited, considering the important issue of institutional design of...

Existing treatments of the choice of an optimal voting rule ignore the effects of the rule on political bargaining. Specifically, more stringent majority requirements reduce intra-coalitional free riding in political compromise, leading to greater gains from political trade. Once this benefit of...