What Would You Like to See on My Public Choice Syllabus?
In previous years, I’ve taught graduate Public Finance I. In designing the course, I treated “public finance” as a synonym for “public economics” or “economics of government.” So while I spent several weeks discussing bread-and-butter public finance topics like the incidence of taxation and provision of public goods, I spent the last half of the course on my favorite topics: the empirical failure of the self-interested voter hypothesis, the role of ideology, Wittman’s critique of traditional public choice, expressive voter, voter irrationality, and the economics of anarchy.
Now I’m switching from Public Finance I to Public Choice II. Since my Public Finance syllabus was already infused with public choice topics, I don’t need to construct a new course from scratch. I merely need to cut out (a) the bread-and-butter public finance topics, and (b) the public choice topics that my colleague Roger Congleton already covers in Public Choice I. Then I’ll just reorganize my Public Finance I notes, and add some additional public choice material.
Since this is a second-semester graduate course, it’s particularly appropriate to focus on topics at the “research frontier” – areas where there’s still lots of room for new, creative research.
So far, here’s what I plan to add:
an extra week on public opinion, including material on e.g. the effect of religion on political views and Andrew Gelman’s work on voting and income
an extra week on voter irrationality, including material on e.g. IQ and economic beliefs and foreign policy. Hopefully Scott Althaus’ book on public opinion and war will be out by then.
a week on government growth, covering Higgs’ classic Crisis and Leviathan, Tyler’s technological account, and more
a week on dictatorship, including an introduction to the histories of Communism and Nazism. I’ll probably assign Tullock’s Autocracy.
a week on constitutional solutions to government failure, including a discussion of endogenous institutions
a week on anarchy, including an introduction to the major anarcho-capitalist debates in the scholarly literature. I’ll probably assign Ed Stringham’s Anarchy and the Law.
This is only a tentative outline. Any suggestions for topics – great and small – that you’d like to see on the syllabus? As usual, I’ll publish my entire course on my webpage, so you don’t have to enroll to benefit from your requests.
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