Gordon Tullock Knihy

While income redistribution is one of the most important functions of modern governments, the world has changed greatly since this first edition of Economics of Income Redistribution was published in 1983. Pension systems and medical programs are in a state of crisis in many parts of the world and the general political mood is shifting away from income redistribution. Economics of Income Redistribution (2nd edition) brings this work up to date by discussing the economic and political aspects of income redistribution. It examines the classical moral objective of redistribution to assist the poor, as well as income transfer for pensions, education and intra-family gift giving.

Co-authored by Buchanan and Gordon Tullock, this classic work represents a significant shift in understanding how democracies function. It examines the political organization of a free society through an economic lens, despite the authors' initial discomfort with this approach. They venture into this unfamiliar territory, believing that their insights will yield valuable outcomes. Their primary aim is to analyze the rational individual's decision-making process regarding constitutional choices, focusing on decision-making rules. This perspective is termed “economic individualism.” The authors argue that while economists have extensively studied individual choice in markets, social scientists have largely overlooked the dynamics of individual decision-making in public sector group actions. Written in the early 1960s, this work has become foundational for the public choice movement, for which Buchanan is renowned. Buchanan, an eminent economist and Nobel laureate, is celebrated as one of the foremost scholars of liberty in the twentieth century. The book is part of a comprehensive series that delves into various aspects of public choice and constitutional economics.

Editor Charles Rowley calls Gordon Tullock “an economist by nature rather than by training.” Tullock attended a one-semester course in economics for law students at the University of Chicago but is otherwise self-taught. Tullock’s background has enabled him to analyze economic problems with an open mind and to deploy his formidable intellect in a truly entrepreneurial manner. Virginia Political Economy is the inaugural volume in Liberty Fund’s The Selected Works of Gordon Tullock. The series consists of ten volumes of selections from the major monographs and scholarly papers published by Tullock between 1954 and 2002. The first volume contains a selection from Tullock’s published academic papers and essays designed to introduce the series and to offer a representative picture of his work to allow scholars to evaluate in depth the relevance and intellectual impact of his contributions. The volume begins with the only two pieces in the Selected Works that were not written by Tullock himself. The first is the brief assessment of Tullock’s contributions made by Mark Blaug in 1985 when explaining why he had included Tullock in his list of the one hundred great economists since John Maynard Keynes. The second is the short statement published in American Economic Review in September 1998, recognizing Tullock as a Distinguished Fellow of the American Economic Association. Gordon Tullock is Professor Emeritus of Law at George Mason University, where he was Distinguished Research Fellow in the Center for Study of Public Choice and University Professor of Law and Economics. He also taught at the University of South Carolina, the University of Virginia, Rice University, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, and the University of Arizona. In 1966 he founded the journal that became Public Choice and remained its editor until 1990. Charles K. Rowley was Duncan Black Professor of Economics at George Mason University and a Senior Fellow of the James M. Buchanan Center for Political Economy at George Mason University. He was also General Director of the Locke Institute.