Interdisciplinary Studies of the Political Order

Donald J. Boudreaux is a Senior Fellow with the F. A. Hayek Program for Advanced Study in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, a Mercatus Center Board Member, and a professor of economics and former economics-department chairman at George Mason University. Christopher J. Coyne is the F. A. Harper Professor of Economics at George Mason University and the Associate Director of the F. A. Hayek Program for Advanced Study in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at the Mercatus Center. Bobbi Herzberg is a Distinguished Senior Fellow in the F. A. Hayek Program in Advanced Study in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University.

• Introduction, Donald J. Boudreaux, Christopher J. Coyne, Bobbi HerzbergPart I – Interdisciplinary Foundations1. A Smithian Critique of James M. Buchanan’s Constitutional Contractarianism, Malte Dold / 2. Towards a More “Tocquevillian” Social Science: Family, Gender, Loyalty and Virtue in Modern Democratic Associationalism, Sarah Jane Wilford / 3. Coping with Complexity: A Theory of Hayekian Interventionism, Alexander Schaefer / 4. The Entanglement of Public Bureaucratic Institutions: Their Interactions with Society, Culture, Politics, and the Economy, Jan P. Vogler / 5. The Conception of Taxation: The Romantic versus Realistic Point of View, Charles Delmotte Part II – Interdisciplinary Applications6. Warning Out, Settlement Laws, and Managing Poor-Relief CPRs in the Tocquevillian Township, Bob Kaminski / 7. Polycentricity and Transnational Environmental Governance: A Comparison of Literatures, James Heilman / 8. Dispute Avoidance through International Regulatory Cooperation: A Public Choice Approach,

"Interdisciplinarity" has become a noise, rather than an analytic concept. What a pleasure it is to see a real interdisciplinary effort, and on an important set of topics. Interdisciplinary work is when a scholar who has mastered an approach applies it in a new and interesting way. This book contains a number of genuinely important chapters, and all the chapters are worth reading. The reason the work is important is that no one approach can explain how institutions begin, survive, or change. But this one book shows these questions can be answered, and in ways that are interesting and fun to read.