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{{About|the political economist| other people with the same name|James Buchanan (disambiguation)}}
{{Use American English|date=July 2020}}
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{{Infobox economist
| name = James M. Buchanan
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'''James McGill Buchanan Jr.''' ({{IPAc-en|b|juː|ˈ|k|æ|n|ən}}; October 3, 1919 – January 9, 2013) was an American [[economist]] known for his work on [[public choice theory]]<ref name="Baird"/> originally outlined in his most famous work, ''[[The Calculus of Consent]]'', co-authored with [[Gordon Tullock]] in 1962. He continued to develop the theory, eventually receiving the [[Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences]] in 1986. Buchanan's work initiated research on how politicians' and bureaucrats' self-interest, utility maximization, and other non-wealth-maximizing considerations affect their decision-making. He was a member of the Board of Advisors of [[The Independent Institute]] as well as of the [[Institute of Economic Affairs]],<ref name="Buchanan_1978a" group="Works">{{cite book |last1=Buchanan |first1=James M |last2=Burton |first2=John |last3=Wagner |first3=R.E. |title=The consequences of Mr. Keynes |date=1978a |publisher=Institute of Economic Affairs |url=http://www.iea.org.uk/sites/default/files/publications/files/THE%20CONSEQUENCES%20OF%20MR%20KEYNES.pdf |access-date=September 24, 2019 |archive-date=June 28, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200628192058/http://www.iea.org.uk/sites/default/files/publications/files/THE%20CONSEQUENCES%20OF%20MR%20KEYNES.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> a member of the [[Mont Pelerin Society]] (MPS) and MPS president from 1984 to 1986,<ref name="membership">{{cite web|title=Mont Pelerin Society Past Presidents|url=https://www.montpelerin.org/past-presidents-2/|access-date=
==Early life and education==
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==Education==
With the support of his wife, Ann Bakke, and the generous [[G.I. Bill]] education subsidy available to war veterans, Buchanan applied to graduate school.<ref name="Buchanan_1992"/>{{rp|4}} In his 1992 autobiography, Buchanan said that when he began his graduate studies in 1945 at the [[University of Chicago]], he was unaware of how market-oriented the [[Chicago school of economics]] was. He stated that he was essentially socialist until he enrolled in a course taught by [[Frank Knight]]. Knight, who also taught leading economic thinkers such as [[Milton Friedman]] and [[George Stigler]] at the University of Chicago, was a founding member of the [[Mont Pelerin Society]].<ref name="MPS_Hayek">{{Cite web | title = F.A. Hayek | work = Mont Pelerin Society (MPS) | access-date = April 4, 2022 | url = https://www.montpelerin.org/f-a-hayek/ | archive-date = February 14, 2016 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160214110311/https://www.montpelerin.org/f-a-hayek/ | url-status = dead }}</ref> Within six weeks of starting his studies, Buchanan said he was "converted into a zealous advocate of the market order".<ref name="Buchanan_2007" group="Works">{{Cite book | publisher = [[Texas A&M University Press]] | isbn = 978-1-58544-603-2| last = Buchanan| first = James M.| title = Economics from the Outside in: "Better Than Plowing" and Beyond| date = 2007 |orig-date=1992}}</ref><ref name="Buchanan_1992" >{{Cite book | publisher = University of Chicago Press | isbn =0226078167 |oclc=24953375 | last = Buchanan| first = James M.| title = Better than plowing, and other personal essays | date = 1992 |pages=184}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://econjwatch.org/ancillary/IPEL.html|title=Ideological Profiles of the Economics Laureates|work=Econ Journal Watch|access-date=
It was also at Chicago that he first read and found enlightening the work of Swedish economist [[Knut Wicksell]].<ref name="McFadden_20130109">{{cite web | issn = 0362-4331| url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/10/business/economy/james-m-buchanan-economic-scholar-dies-at-93.html?_r=0 | title=James M. Buchanan, Economic Scholar and Nobel Laureate, Dies at 93 | work=[[The New York Times]] | date=January 9, 2013 | access-date=August 25, 2016 | last=McFadden |first=Robert D. | archive-date=June 14, 2020 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200614233142/https://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/10/business/economy/james-m-buchanan-economic-scholar-dies-at-93.html?_r=0 | url-status=live }}</ref> Photographs of Knight and Wicksell hung on his office walls ever after.
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One of the Center's early publications that reached a wider audience was a 1959 report Buchanan co-authored with Nutter, "The Economics of Universal Education".<ref name="Buchanan_Nutter_1959" group="Works">{{cite report |title=The Economics of Universal Education (unpublished monograph)|last1=Buchanan |first1=James M. |last2=Nutter |first2=G. Warren |date=1959 |work=Thomas Jefferson Center for Studies in Political Economy |series=Buchanan House Archives |location=[[Lancaster, Pennsylvania]]}}</ref><ref name="Hershman_20201109">{{Cite magazine | last1 = Hershman| first1 = James H. Jr.| title = James M. Buchanan, Segregation, and Virginia's Massive Resistance| magazine = Institute for New Economic Thinking| access-date = April 8, 2022 |date=November 9, 2020 | url = https://www.ineteconomics.org/perspectives/blog/james-m-buchanan-segregation-and-virginias-massive-resistance}}</ref><ref name="Levy_Peart_2020">{{Cite book| publisher = Cambridge University Press| isbn = 978-1-108-42897-2| pages = 93–138| editor-last1=Levy |editor-first1 = David M. |editor-first2=Sandra J. |editor-last2=Peart| title = Towards an Economics of Natural Equals: A Documentary History of the Early Virginia School| chapter = 'The Economics of Universal Education' and After: From Friedman to Rawls| location = Cambridge| access-date = April 11, 2022 | date = 2020| doi = 10.1017/9781108571661.005| s2cid = 241726550| url = https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/towards-an-economics-of-natural-equals/economics-of-universal-education-and-after-from-friedman-to-rawls/7A57C4A4E3E5794A99472B6859742DEA}}</ref> In it they wrote that the, "case for universal education is self-evident: a democracy cannot function without an informed and educated citizenry. . . . If education is to be universal, compulsion must be exercised by government—that is, by the collective organ of society—since some parents might choose to keep their children out of school. For similar reasons, minimum standards of education must be determined by government. Otherwise, the requirement of education is empty and meaningless."<ref name="Buchanan_Nutter_1959" group="Works"/><ref name="Munger_20170629"/> Buchanan was not against "state participation in education" although he strongly opposed " state monopoly of education".<ref name="Munger_20170629"/>
Its publication provided the Center and its authors, their first opportunity to be involved in a major public policy issue related to constitutional reform.<ref name="Hershman_20201109"/> A March 12, 1959 ''Charlottesville Daily Progress'' editorial called for reform of Virginia's constitution that would recognize "both the need for universal education and the right of the individual to freedom of choice in the education of his children." Georgetown University historian, James H. Hershman, said the wording seems to be from "The Economics of Universal Education".<ref name="Hershman_20201109"/> In a 2017 CATO Institute's Libertarianism,org podcast, Richard E. Wagner, who studied under Buchanan in the 1960s and maintained a 50-year friendship with him, said that Buchanan was an "egalitarian" and had no objection to the 1954 [[Brown v. Board of Education]] [[Supreme Court of the United States|U.S. Supreme Court]] decision that introduced desegregation in [[Public school (government funded)|public schools]].<ref name="FreeThoughts_20171005">{{Cite AV media | series = Free Thoughts |people= Trevor Burrus and Aaron Ross Powell (hosts), Richard E. Wagner (Department of Economics; George Mason University, Mercatus Center)| title = The Real James Buchanan | access-date = April 8, 2022 | date = October 5, 2017
In later years, Buchanan no longer held the same ideas on school vouchers as those expressed in the 1959 report. He cautioned in a 1984 letter to the [[Institute for Economic Affairs]]' [[Arthur Seldon]] that a state-sponsored unregulated voucher system from tax revenues to avoid the "evils of state monopoly" of the education system, could have the unintended consequence of the "evils of race-class-cultural segregation."<ref name="Buchanan_1982" group="Works">{{citation |title=James Buchanan to Arthur Seldon |date=1984 |series=Archive: Vouchers . . . Correspondence Buchanan Box 162.2 |work=[[Institute for Economic Affairs]] via [[Hoover Institution]] |location= Stanford, California }}</ref><ref name="Munger_20170629"/> The voucher system could result in recreating the exclusive membership-only system for elites. While vouchers would ideally promote market competition while also providing benefits of "exposure to other races, classes and cultures", Buchanan warned that this may not happen in practice.<ref name="Buchanan_1982" group="Works"/><ref name="Munger_20170629"/>
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In 1983, Buchanan relocated the entire Center for Study of Public Choice unit, which included its seven faculty members to George Mason University (GMU) in [[Fairfax, Virginia]].<ref name="Mitchell1988" /> Buchanan complained to then-GMU economics department chair Karen Vaughn that VPI was losing its status as unique center for public choice.<ref name="Vaughn_20150601">{{Cite journal |last=Vaughn |first=Karen |date=June 1, 2015 |title=How James Buchanan came to George Mason University |journal=[[Journal of Private Enterprise]] |volume=30 |pages=103–109 |issn=0890-913X |number=2}}</ref> Buchanan was offered an annual salary of over $100,000 at George Mason,<ref name="SCPB_AR_1985" />{{rp|27}} At the time, George Mason was a relatively unknown state university, having just gained independent status from the University of Virginia in 1972.<ref name="Vaughn_20150601" /> Buchanan was drawn to GMU's leadership.<ref name="SCPB_AR_1985">{{cite report |title=Center for Study of Public Choice Annual Report (1985)|series=Annual report |number=T151381398 |pages=43}}</ref>{{rp|27}} Vaughn stated that she believed the addition of the Center contributed to GMU's rapid growth.<ref name="Vaughn_20150601" /> Over the next decades, GMU became the largest public university in Virginia.<ref name="Barakat_20180430">{{Cite news |last=Barakat |first=Matthew |date=April 30, 2018 |title=Documents show ties between university, conservative donors |work=AP NEWS |location=Fairfax, Virginia |url=https://apnews.com/article/0c87e4318bcc4eb9b8e69f9f54c7b889 |access-date=April 7, 2022}}</ref>
Economist [[James C. Miller III]], who served as chairman of the [[Federal Trade Commission]] (FTC) and as [[United States Office of Management and Budget|Budget Director]] for then-US president [[Ronald Reagan]] consulted with Buchanan, Tullock, and Tollison at the Center.<ref name="Vaughn_20150601"/>{{rp|25}} From 1998 to 2002 the Center functioned as part of James M. Buchanan Center for Political Economy.<ref>{{Cite web |date=
===Other activities and associations===
Buchanan was president of the [[Southern Economic Association]] in 1963 and of the Western Economic Association in 1983 and 1984, and vice president of the American Economic Association in 1971.{{Citation needed|date=March 2023}}
Buchanan was associated with the Indianapolis-headquartered [[Liberty Fund]], a [[Free market|free-market]] [[think tank]] which was founded in 1960 by [[Pierre F. Goodrich]]. Goodrich became a member of the Mont Pelerin Society in 1953 and had formed friendships with Hayek, Mises, Friedman and others. The Liberty Fund hosted conferences and symposiums on Buchanan's economic policy, liberalism and liberty.<ref name="Lee_2012" />{{rp|162}} The entire collection of his publications are hosted on the Online Library of Liberty (OLL) site. The Liberty Fund also published ''The Collected Works of James Buchanan''.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Collected Works of James M. Buchanan in 20 vols. {{!}} Online Library of Liberty |url=https://oll.libertyfund.org/title/tollison-the-collected-works-of-james-m-buchanan-in-20-vols |access-date=
==Major research themes==
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* 1986: [[Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences]] for "development of the contractual and constitutional bases for the theory of economic and political decision making"
* 2001: Honorary doctoral degree from [[Universidad Francisco Marroquín]], in [[Guatemala City]], [[Guatemala]], for contribution to economics.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.ufm.edu/cms/es/honorary-doctoral-degrees|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110501185429/https://www.ufm.edu/cms/es/honorary-doctoral-degrees|url-status=dead|title=Honorary Doctoral Degrees at Universidad Francisco Marroquín|archive-date=May 1, 2011}}</ref>
* 2006 [[National Humanities Medal]] for his development of economic analysis of politics.<ref>{{Cite web |title=James M. Buchanan |url=https://www.neh.gov/about/awards/national-humanities-medals/james-m-buchanan |access-date=
==Legacy==
Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU) Honors College's Buchanan Fellowship program, named for Buchanan, is awarded to 20 first-year student at MTSU annually.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Buchanan Fellowship Information {{!}} Middle Tennessee State University|url=https://www.mtsu.edu/honors/buchanan/information.php|access-date=
In his 2017 publication, Richard Wagner described how Buchanan's scholarship continues to influence law, ethics, political science, and economics in the 21st century.<ref name="Wagner_20170523"/>
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Nicolás Cachanosky and [[Edward J. Lopez]] suggest that Buchanan's research can inform work on trade restrictions and populism in the twenty-first century.<ref name="Cachanosky_202006"/>
Buchanan is a central figure in the 2017 nonfiction book ''[[Democracy in Chains]]'' by [[Duke University]] professor and historian [[Nancy MacLean]].<ref name="Maclean_2017">{{cite book |last=MacLean |first= Nancy |orig-date=2017 |date=2018 |title=Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right's Stealth Plan for America |location=New York |publisher=Penguin Books |isbn=9781101980972 |oclc=1029879485 |pages= 368}}</ref> MacLean traced Buchanan's concept of power to the 1950s and 1960s. Buchanan had become concerned that the federal government was channeling too many resources to the public.<ref name="Parramore_20180530">{{Cite news | last = Parramore| first = Lynn| title = Meet the Hidden Architect Behind America's Racist Economics| work = [[Institute for New Economic Thinking]]|date=May 30, 2018 | access-date = March 25, 2022| url = https://www.ineteconomics.org/perspectives/blog/meet-the-economist-behind-the-one-percents-stealth-takeover-of-america}}</ref> As he witnessed the federal government increasing its power, Buchanan sought ways to protect the wealthy from being forced to support programs that seemed to him to be a move towards socialism.<ref name="Parramore_20180530"/> MacLean described how Buchanan and other libertarians seek to protect capitalism by preventing government overreach. MacLean described Buchanan's concept of human nature as "dismal" and that he believed that politicians and government workers are motivated by self-interest and that government would continue to increase in scale and power unless there were constitutional limits in place.<ref name="Thompson_20190601">{{Cite journal |last=Thompson |first=Fred |date=June 1, 2019 |title=Nancy MacLean, Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right's Stealth Plan for America. |url=https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?p=AONE&sw=w&issn=01472011&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CA593171762&sid=googleScholar&linkaccess=abs |journal=Society |volume=56 |issue=3 |pages=300–307 |doi=10.1007/s12115-019-00369-2 |issn=0147-2011 |s2cid=197402340 |access-date=April 2, 2022}}</ref> MacLean raised concerns that Buchanan and [[Charles Koch]] mutually supported one another to the detriment of democratic participation for all. Koch provided millions in funding to libertarian university programs and Buchanan provided the intellectual arguments from political economy to place limits on democracy.<ref name="Thompson_20190601"/> MacLean's book became a catalyst for discussion online and in journals.<ref name="Fleury_2018">{{Cite journal |last1=Fleury |first1=Jean-Baptiste |last2=Marciano |first2=Alain |date=2018 |title=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 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26570579 |journal=Journal of Economic Literature |volume=56 |issue=4 |pages=1492–1537 |doi=10.1257/jel.20181502 |issn=0022-0515 |jstor=26570579 |s2cid=150159179 |access-date=April 2, 2022}}</ref> ''[[The New York Review of Books]]'', ''Boston Review of Books'', and ''[[Los Angeles Review of Books]]'' gave the book positive reviews. Her critics include [[David Bernstein (law professor)|David Bernstein]] who wrote a series of ''Washington Post'' opinion pieces as part of the ''Volokh Conspiracy'' blog.<ref name="Bernstein_20170720">{{Cite news |last=Bernstein |first=David |date=
University of Chicago economist [[Luigi Zingales]] has been influenced by public choice theory which provides a toolbox for understanding how the political system can be corrupted by powerful business interests.<ref name="Farrell_20170714">{{Cite magazine | last1 = Farrell| first1 = Henry |last2=Teles |first2=Steven| title = Even the intellectual left is drawn to conspiracy theories about the right. Resist them.| magazine = Vox| access-date = April 3, 2022| date = July 14, 2017 | url = https://www.vox.com/the-big-idea/2017/7/14/15967788/democracy-shackles-james-buchanan-intellectual-history-maclean}}</ref> His 2021 book, ''[[A Capitalism for the People|A Capitalism for the People: Recapturing the Lost Genius of American Prosperity]]'', is a call for populist agenda that reflects a distrust of government and supports more competition and free markets. He suggests limiting regulations and relying on a "whistleblower reward system" .<ref>{{cite web |title=Nonfiction review |work=Publishers Weekly |url=http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-465-02947-1 |date=April 23, 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |work=The Financial Times |first=John |last=Plender |date=April 15, 2012 |title=Nostalgia for the land of opportunity |url=http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/0415a456-8551-11e1-a75a-00144feab49a.html#axzz1y8F3hCTJ |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221210211205/https://www.ft.com/content/0415a456-8551-11e1-a75a-00144feab49a#axzz1y8F3hCTJ |archive-date=December 10, 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |access-date=April 4, 2022 }}</ref>
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