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Mises, bastiat, public opinion, and public choice

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  • Bryan Caplan
  • Edward Stringham

Abstract

The political economy of Ludwig von Mises and Frederic Bastiat has been largely ignored even by their admirers. We argue that Mises' and Bastiat's views in this area were both original and insightful. While traditional public choice generally maintains that democracy fails because voters' views are rational but ignored, the Mises-Bastiat view is that democracy fails because voters' views are irrational but heeded. Mises and Bastiat anticipate many of the most effective criticisms of traditional public choice to emerge during the last decade and point to many avenues for future research.

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  • Bryan Caplan & Edward Stringham, 2005. "Mises, bastiat, public opinion, and public choice," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(1), pages 79-105.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:revpoe:v:17:y:2005:i:1:p:79-105
    DOI: 10.1080/0953825042000313825
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    Cited by:

    1. Niclas Berggren & Christian Bjørnskov & David Lipka, 2015. "Legitimacy and the cost of government," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 162(3), pages 307-328, March.
    2. Nicholas A. Curott & Edward P. Stringham, 2010. "The Rise of Government Law Enforcement in England," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Edward J. López (ed.), The Pursuit of Justice, chapter 0, pages 19-36, Palgrave Macmillan.
    3. Edward Peter Stringham, 2010. "Toward a Libertarian Strategy for Academic Change: The Movement Building of Peter Boettke," Journal of Private Enterprise, The Association of Private Enterprise Education, vol. 26(Fall 2010), pages 1-12.
    4. Vlad Tarko, 2015. "The role of ideas in political economy," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 28(1), pages 17-39, March.
    5. Will Matthias Georg & Pies Ingo, 2014. "Insiderhandel und die Neuordnung der Kapitalmärkte: Ein Beitrag zur Regulierungsdebatte in Europa / Insider Trade and the New Ordering of Capital Markets: A Contribution to the Regulatory Debate in Eu," ORDO. Jahrbuch für die Ordnung von Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft, De Gruyter, vol. 65(1), pages 159-182, January.
    6. François Facchini & Mickaël Melki, 2011. "Optimal Government Size and Economic Growth in France (1871-2008): An explanation by the State and Market Failures," Documents de travail du Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne 11077, Université Panthéon-Sorbonne (Paris 1), Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne.
    7. Anthony Evans, 2014. "A subjectivist’s solution to the limits of public choice," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 27(1), pages 23-44, March.
    8. Pál Czeglédi, 2020. "The consistency of market beliefs as a determinant of economic freedom," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 31(2), pages 227-258, June.
    9. Facchini, François & Melki, Mickaël, 2013. "Efficient government size: France in the 20th century," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 1-14.
    10. Mark C. Schug & Dwight R. Lee, 2012. "Why Economic Education Is Dangerous for Politicians," Journal of Private Enterprise, The Association of Private Enterprise Education, vol. 28(Fall 2012), pages 47-60.
    11. Edward Stringham & Caleb Miles, 2012. "Repelling states: Evidence from upland Southeast Asia," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 25(1), pages 17-33, March.
    12. Caleb J. Miles & Edward Peter Stringham, 2014. "Eliminating the Perceived Legitimacy of the State," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Austrian Theory and Economic Organization, chapter 0, pages 147-174, Palgrave Macmillan.
    13. J. Patrick Mullins, 2009. "The Right of Private Judgment: Jonathan Mayhew's Religious Route to Political Individualism," Journal of Private Enterprise, The Association of Private Enterprise Education, vol. 24(Spring 20), pages 101-111.
    14. Vicini, Andrea, 2011. "The Public Choice and the traditional view of political science," MPRA Paper 60238, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised Oct 2014.
    15. Williamson, Claudia R., 2012. "Dignity and development," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 41(6), pages 763-771.
    16. Boris Urban & Zethu Dlamini, 2020. "Intersections between policy and institutions: a focus on enterprise growth in Swaziland," Journal of Entrepreneurship and Public Policy, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 9(3), pages 253-275, April.
    17. Will, Matthias Georg & Pies, Ingo, 2014. "Insiderhandel und die Regulierung der Kapitalmärkte: Ein Beitrag zur MiFID-Debatte," Discussion Papers 2014-7, Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg, Chair of Economic Ethics.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • H10 - Public Economics - - Structure and Scope of Government - - - General
    • D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
    • B53 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Current Heterodox Approaches - - - Austrian
    • P16 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Capitalist Economies - - - Capitalist Institutions; Welfare State

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