Mar 15, 2020
This unique episode features Gary Mongiovi of St. John's
University and David Levy of George Mason University discussing
their particular perspectives on the work of James Buchanan, winner
of the 1986 Nobel Prize in Economics, and father of public choice
economics and constitutional political economy. The episode begins
with an excerpt from Professor Mongiovi's presentation at the
first Winter Institute for the History of Economic Thought, held at
Arizona State University in January. Mongiovi interprets Buchanan
as (what Marx called) a "vulgar economist," who offered disguised
ideological arguments as scientific analyses. In a roundtable
discussion conducted after Mongiovi's talk, Professor Levy,
co-author with Sandra Peart of the forthcoming book about Buchanan
and his Virginia School of Political Economy, Towards an
Economics of Natural Equals:
A Documentary History of the Early Virginia School, argues
that understanding Buchanan's economics requires a more nuanced
interpretation. A fruitful scholarly discussion between Mongiovi
and Levy follows.
For the symposium on Nancy MacLean's Democracy in Chains referenced in Professor Mongiovi's lecture, see:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/publication/doi/10.1108/S0743-4154201937B
For information on Levy and Peart's forthcoming book, see the book's page at Cambridge University Press:
Smith and Marx Walk into a Bar is supported by a grant from the History of Economics Society: http://historyofeconomics.org