Bibliograph

Politics by principle, not interest, toward nondiscriminatory democracy, James M. Buchanan, Roger D. Congleton

Type

Label

Politics by principle, not interest, toward nondiscriminatory democracy, James M. Buchanan, Roger D. Congleton

Language

eng

Index

index present

Literary Form

non fiction

Main title

Politics by principle, not interest

Medium

electronic resource

Nature of contents

dictionaries

Oclc number

726826226

Responsibility statement

James M. Buchanan, Roger D. Congleton

Series statement

Cambridge Social Sciences eBooks

Sub title

toward nondiscriminatory democracy

Summary

The very logic of majority rule implies unequal treatment or discrimination. If left unconstrained, majority coalitions will promote the interests of their own members at the expense of other persons. This book focuses on the effects of applying a generality constraint on the political process. Under this requirement, majorities would be constitutionally prohibited from treating different persons and groups differently. The generality principle is familiar in that all persons are to be treated equally. In summary, this book extends the generality norm to politics. Several defences of equal treatment or generality are developed and applied. These include the familiar intuition that invokes fairness. But the primary argument here is centred on political efficiency, which is increased when governments are constrained to treat persons or groups generally rather than differentially. The political efficiency defence of the generality constraint is based on a public choice analysis of the implication of majoritarian discrimination.--, Provided by publisher

Table Of Contents

Part 1 Introduction: generality, law, and politics. Part 2 Analysis: majoritarian democracy; eliminating the off diagonals; extending the argument; generality and the political agenda. Part 3 Application: generality and externality; market restriction and the generality norm; the political efficiency of general taxation; deficit financing and the intertemporal discrimination; generality and the supply of public services; generality and redistribution; generality without uniformity -- social insurance; generality without uniformity -- federalism. Part 4 Prospect: the political shape of constitutional order

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