Abstract
The cameralist writers emerged after 1500, primarily in the German-speaking lands, and stayed on the scene until the middle of the nineteenth century. While I devote some effort to characterizing some of the works and themes of the cameralists, I devote most of this chapter to an examination of the contemporary relevance of a cameralist orientation for scholarship in public finance. To place such stress upon contemporary relevance is not to ignore the vast differences between their times and ours, but is only to affirm that there are some enduring themes within the cameralist orientation that could prove interesting and fruitful for contemporary scholarship in public finance.
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Notes
- 1.
Goode’s lament was voiced brilliantly some years later in a different context by Leijonhufvud (1996), who said that “recent developments in macroeconomics remind him of the movies coming out of Hollywood: there isn’t much to the plots anymore, but the special effects are spectacular.”
- 2.
A valuable textbook by Blankart (1991, Ch. 2) presents cameralism as the source for the approach to public finance associated with such authors as Sax, Wicksell, Lindahl, and various turn-of-the-century Italian scholars.
- 3.
Related territory is addressed in Backhaus and Wagner (1987).
- 4.
- 5.
For a nice effort to pursue such an approach, see Kraan (1996).
- 6.
They also raise questions of whether principals share some common standard for appraising agent performance. Without agreement among principles, it is dubious to speak of agency costs and related notions. It must suffice to say here that the degree of agreement among principles can be influenced by institutional arrangements. Market arrangements based on private property generally facilitate agreement among principals. Some democratic arrangements may operate in a similar manner, where others appear not to do so.
- 7.
- 8.
See, for instance, the essays collected in Buchanan and Thirlby (1973).
- 9.
The chief turn-of-the-century inspiration for postcameralist public finance would be Wicksell.
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Wagner, R.E. (2012). The Cameralists: Fertile Sources for a New Science of Public Finance. In: Backhaus, J. (eds) Handbook of the History of Economic Thought. The European Heritage in Economics and the Social Sciences, vol 11. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-8336-7_4
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