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The Political Economy of Buchanan's Samaritan's dilemma

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  • Alain Marciano

    (MRE - Montpellier Recherche en Economie - UM - Université de Montpellier)

Abstract

Written by James Buchanan in the early 1970s, "The Samaritan's Dilemma" is a pessimistic essay, marked by his author's negative views about the situation in Western societies at that time. Yet, the situation described in this essay also fits into Buchanan's approach of cooperation and free-riding. Put differently, it is perfectly with Buchanan's views in public economics. This is what we aim at showing in this short article. Our demonstration develops in two parts. First, we show that Buchanan's main argument about cooperation in the provision of public goods or removal of externalities necessarily leads to situations such as the one described in the Samaritan's dilemma. Second, we show that Buchanan did not take the situation seriously until the end of the 1960s, a few years before he wrote his essay on the dilemma.

Suggested Citation

  • Alain Marciano, 2022. "The Political Economy of Buchanan's Samaritan's dilemma," Post-Print hal-03683855, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03683855
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://cnrs.hal.science/hal-03683855
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Jean-Baptiste Fleury & Alain Marciano, 2018. "The Sound of Silence: A Review Essay of Nancy MacLean's Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right's Stealth Plan for America," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 56(4), pages 1492-1537, December.
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    6. Alain Marciano, 2021. "Retrospectives: James Buchanan: Clubs and Alternative Welfare Economics," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 35(3), pages 243-256, Summer.
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    13. Otto Lehto & John Meadowcroft, 2021. "Welfare without rent seeking? Buchanan’s demogrant proposal and the possibility of a constitutional welfare state," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 32(2), pages 145-164, June.
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    Keywords

    Buchanan; samaritan's dilemma; cooperation; exploitation; numbers; public goods; externalities;
    All these keywords.

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