The Calculus Of Consent.
"If men should cease and desist from their talk about and their search for evil men and commence to look instead at the institutions manned by ordinary people, wide avenues for genuine social reform might appear": First Edition of The Calculus of Consent; Inscribed by Nobel Prize-winning Economist James M. Buchanan and Gordon Tullock
The Calculus Of Consent.
BUCHANAN, James M. and Gordon Tullock.
$12,500.00
Item Number: 39005
Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1962.
First edition of this landmark work. Octavo, original cloth. Boldly inscribed by both James M. Buchanan and Gordon Tullock on the front free endpaper. Fine in a near fine dust jacket that has a few small closed tears. Rare and desirable signed and inscribed first edition.
The Calculus Of Consent is one of the classic works from the discipline of public choice in economics and political science. The analytical approach of the authors is based on methodological individualism - collective action is composed of individual actions and on the rejection of any organic interpretation of the state. A purely individualistic conception of collectivity is maintained: the state is an artifact, created by men and thus subject to change and perfection. Buchanan and Tullock maintain that only constitutional changes, which can be shown to be in the interest of all interested parties can be judged as "improvements" and therefore consider conceptual unanimity as the only legitimate decision-making rule.
