Abstract
According to many democracytheorists, there is an unavoidabletrade-off between constitutionalism and theneed for political action. This papercriticizes that belief. Rather, it arguesthat a division of power, while sometimesentailing high political transaction costs,can nevertheless be beneficial andthat it is not necessarily the case that adivision of power does entail hightransaction costs. The analysis expands theframework of Buchanan and Tullock (1962).Constitutionalism is thus defended againstone of its main perceived deficiencies: itsbringing about gridlock. This does notalways happen, and when it does, it isoften a good thing.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution.
References
Almond, B. (1993). Rights. In Singer, P. (Ed.), A companion to ethics. Oxford: Blackwell.
Ayer, A.J. (1967). Ethics for logical positivists. In Language, truth and logic. London: Victor Gollancz.
Bellamy, R. (1996). The political form of constitution: The separation of powers, rights and representative government. In Bellamy, R. and Castiglione, D. (Eds.), Constitutionalism in transformation: European and theoretical perspectives. Oxford: Blackwell.
Benz, M. and Stutzer, A. (2002). Are voters better informed when they have a larger say in politics? Mimeo. Paper presented at the Meeting of the European Public Choice Society in Belgirate, Italy. April.
Berggren, N. and Bergström, F. (1999). A constitutional analysis of selectivity in economic policy-making. In Berggren, N., Karlson, N. and Nergelius, J. (Eds.), Makt utan motvikt: om demokrati och konstitutionalism [Power without counterpoise: On democracy and constitutionalism]. Stockholm: City University Press.
Berggren, N. and Kurrild-Klitgaard, P. (2002). The economic effects of political institutions, with special reference to constitutions. In Berggren, N., Karlson, N. and Nergelius, J. (Eds.), Why constitutions matter. New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers.
Bogdanor, V. (1997). Power and the people: A guide to constitutional reform. London: Victor Gollancz.
Brennan, G. and Buchanan, J.M. (1985). The reason of rules: Constitutional political economy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Brennan, G. and Hamlin, A. (2000). Democratic devices and desires. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Buchanan, J.M. (1975). The limits of liberty: Between anarchy and Leviathan. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Buchanan, J.M. (1987). Constitution of economic policy. In Tollison, R.D. and Vanberg, V.J. (Eds.), Economics: Between predictive science and moral philosophy. College Station: Texas A & M University Press.
Buchanan, J.M. (2000). Direct democracy, classical liberalism, and constitutional strategy. Paper presented at the Meeting of the Mont Pelerin Society in Santiago, Chile. November.
Buchanan, J.M. (2002). Why do constitutions matter?. In Berggren, N., Karlson, N. and Nergelius, J. (Eds.), Why constitutions matter. New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers.
Buchanan, J.M. and Congleton, R.D. (1998). Politics by principle, not interest: Towards nondiscriminatory democracy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Buchanan, J.M. and Tullock, G. (1962). The calculus of consent: Logical foundations of constitutional democracy. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press.
Burke, E. (1975). On government, politics and society. In Hill, B.W. (Ed.). Brighton: Fontana/The Harvester Press.
Castiglione, D. (1996). The political theory of constitution. In Bellamy, R. and Castiglione, D. (Eds.), Constitutionalism in transformation: European and theoretical perspectives. Oxford: Blackwell.
Charlot, J. and Charlot, M. (1992). France. In Butler, D. and Ranney, A. (Eds.), Electioneering: A comparative study of continuity and change. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Cooter, R.D. (2000). The strategic constitution. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Dahl, R.A. (1989). Democracy and its critics. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Duverger, M. (1991). A new political system model: Semipresidential government. In Lijphart, A. (Ed.), Parliamentary versus presidential government. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Dworkin, R. (1977). Taking rights seriously. London: Duckworth.
Elster, J. (1979). Ulysses and the sirens: Studies in rationality and irrationality. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Elster, J. (1988). Introduction. In Elster, J. and Slagstad, R. (Eds.), Constitutionalism and democracy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Elster, J. (1998a). Deliberation and constitution making. In Elster, J. (Ed.), Deliberative democracy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Elster, J. (1998b). Introduction. In Elster, J. (Ed.), Deliberative democracy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Fearon, J.D. (1998). Deliberation as discussion. In Elster, J. (Ed.), Deliberative democracy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Feld, L.P. and Kirchgässner, G. (2000). Direct democracy, political culture, and the outcome of economic policy: Some Swiss experience. European Journal of Political Economy 16: 287-306.
Feld, L.P. and Matsusaka, J.G. (2000). Budget referendums and government spending: Evidence from Swiss Cantons. Paper presented at the Meeting of the European Public Choice Society in Siena, Italy. April.
Feld, L.P. and Savioz, M.R. (1997). Direct democracy matters for economic performance: An empirical investigation. Kyklos 50: 507-538.
Frey, B.S. (1994). Direct democracy: Politico-economic lessons from the Swiss experience. American Economic Review 84: 338-348.
Frey, B.S. (1997). A constitution for knaves crowds out civic virtues. Economic Journal 10. 1043-1053.
Frey, B.S. (2000). The future of democracy: More direct citizen participation. Paper presented at the Meeting of the Mont Pelerin Society in Santiago, Chile. November.
Frey, B.S. and Pommerehne, W.W. (1995). Public expenditure on the arts and direct democracy: The use of referenda in Switzerland. Cultural Policy 2: 55-65.
Frey, B.S. and Stutzer, A. (2002). Happiness and economics: How the economy and institutions affect human well-being. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Gambetta, D. (1998). "Claro!": An essay on discursive machismo. In Elster, J. (Ed.), Deliberative democracy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Gutman, A. and Thompson, D. (2000). Why deliberative democracy is different. Social Philosophy and Policy 17: 161-180.
Gordon, S. (1999). Controlling the state: Constitutionalism from ancient Athens to today. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Habermas, J. (1992). Faktizität und Geltung: Beiträge zur Diskurstheorie des Rechts und des demokratischen Rechtsstaats. Frankfurt: M. Suhrkamp.
Hamilton, A., Jay, J. and Madison, J. (1778/1961). The federalist papers. New York: New American Library.
Hare, R.M. (1981). Moral thinking: Its level, method and point. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Hayek, F.A. (1937). Economics and knowledge. Economica 4: 33-54.
Hayek, F.A. (1960). The constitution of liberty. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Hayek, F.A. (1973). Law, legislation and liberty. London: Routledge.
Henisz, W.J. (2000). The institutional environment for economic growth. Economics and Politics 12: 1-31.
Hermansson, J. (1988). The majority as a guarantee of the general will: A note on the constitutional theory of Rosseau. In Anckar, D., Nurmi, H. and Wiberg, M. (Eds.), Rationality and legitimacy: Essays on political Theory. Jyväskylä: The Finnish Political Science Association.
Holmes, S. (1988). Precommitment and the paradox of democracy. In Elster, J. and Slagstad, R. (Eds.), Constitutionalism and democracy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Hooker, B. (2000). Ideal code, real world: A rule-consequentialist theory of morality. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Karlson, N. (2001). The state of state: Invisible hands in politics and civil society. New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers.
Landes, W.M. and Posner, R.A. (1975). The independent judiciary in an interest group perspective. Journal of Law and Economics 18: 875-901.
Lane, J.-E. (1996). Constitutions and political theory. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Lane, J.-E. and Ersson, S. (2000). The new institutional politics: Performance and outcomes. London: Routledge.
Lijphart, A. (1999). Patterns of democracy: Government forms and performance in thirty-six countries. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Linz, J.J. (1994). Presidentialism or parliamentary democracy: Does it make a difference? In Linz, J.J. and Valenzuela, A. (Eds.), The failure of presidential democracy. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press.
Lively, J. (1975). Democracy. Oxford: Basil Blackwell
Macey, J.R. (1988). Transaction costs and the normative elements of the public choice model: An application to constitutional theory. Virginia Law Review 74: 471-518.
List, C. (2002). Two concepts of agreement. The Good Society 11: 72-79.
List, C., McLean, I., Fishkin, J. and Luskin, R. (2000). Can deliberation induce greater preference structuration? Evidence from deliberative opinion polls. Proceedings of the American Political Science Association.
Mainwaring, S. (1990). Presidentialism in Latin America. Latin America Reserach Review 25: 157-179.
Mainwaring, S. and Soberg Shugart, M. (Eds.) (1997). Presidentialism and democracy in Latin America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Matsusaka, J.G. (2000). Fiscal effects of the voter initiative in the first half of the twentieth century. Journal of Law and Economics 43: 619-650.
Mill, J.S. (1861/1972). Considerations on representative government. London: J.M. Dent & Sons.
Miller, G.J. and Hammond, T.H. (1989). Stability and efficiency in a separation-of-powers constitutional system. In Grofman, B. and Wittman, D. (Eds.), The federalist papers and the new institutionalism. New York: Agathon Press.
Moberg, E. (1998). The expanding public sector: A threat to democracy? In Eliasson, G. and Karlson, N. (Eds.), The limits of government: On policy competence and economic growth. Stockholm: City University Press.
Moberg, E. (1999). Positive and normative aspects of direct democracy: The case of Sweden in a general context. In Berggren, N., Karlson, N. and Nergelius, J. (Eds.), Makt utan motvikt: om demokrati och konstitutionalism [Power without counterpoise: On democracy and constitutionalism]. Stockholm: City University Press.
Montesquieu, C. de Secondat (1748/1990). The spirit of the laws. Chicago: Encyclopaedia.
Moser, P. (1999). The impact of legislative institutions on public policy: A survey. European Journal of Political Economy 15: 1-33.
North, D.C. (1990). Institutions, institutional change and economic performance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Nozick, R. (1974). Anarchy, state, and utopia. New York: Basic Books.
Peczenik, A. (2002). Why constitution? What constitution? Constraints on majority rule. In Berggren, N., Karlson, N. and Nergelius, J. (Eds.), Why constitutions matter. New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers.
Persson, T. and Tabellini, G. (2001a). Do constitutions cause large governments? Quasiexperimental evidence? Unpublished manuscript.
Persson, T. and Tabellini, G. (2001b). Political institutions and policy outcomes: What are the stylized facts? Unpublished manuscript.
Peters, T. (1996). Decision-making after the EU intergovernmental conference. European Law Journal 3: 251–266.
Posner, R.A. (1987). The constitution as an economic document. George Washington Law Review 56: 4-38.
Rawls, J. (1971).A theory of justice. Cambridge: Belknap Press.
Riker, W.H. (1975). Federalism. In Greenstein, F.I. and Polsby, N.W. (Eds.), Handbook of political science, Vol. 5: Governmental institutions and processes. Reading: Addison-Wesley.
Riker, W.H. (1982). Liberalism versus populism: A confrontation between the theory of democracy and the theory of social choice. San Francisco: W.H. Freeman.
Robinson, D. (Ed.) (1985). Reforming American government: The bicentennial papers of the committee on the constitutional system. Boulder: Westview.
Rousseau, J.-J. (1967). The social contract and discourse on the origin of inequality. New York: Washington Square Press.
Sartori, G. (1987). The theory of democracy revisited, part one: The contemporary debate. Chatham: Chatham House Publishers.
Scharpf, F.W. (1988). The joint-decision trap: Lessons from German federalism and European integration. Public Administration 66: 239-278.
Scharpf, F.W. (1999). Governing Europe: Effective and democratic? Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Sen, A. (1987). On ethics and economics. Oxford: Blackwell.
Simon, H. (1955). A behavioral model of rational choice. Quarterly Journal of Economics 69: 99-118.
Simon, H. (1990). Invariants of human behavior. Annual Review of Psychology 41: 1-19.
Stokes, S.C. (1998). Pathologies of deliberation. In Elster, J. (Ed.), Deliberative democracy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Wachendorfer-Schmidt, U. (2000). Introduction. In Wachendorfer-Schmidt, U. (Ed.), Federalism and political performance. London: Routledge/ECPR Studies in European Political Science.
Vanberg, V.J. (1994). Rules and choice in economics: Essays in constitutional political economy. London: Routledge.
Vanberg, V.J. and Buchanan, J.M. (1989). Interests and theories in constitutional choice.Journal of Theoretical Politics 1: 49-62.
Voigt, S. (2001). The consequences of popular participation in constitutional choice: Towards a comparative analysis. Unpublished manuscript.
Wohlgemuth, M. (2002). Evolutionary approaches to politics. Kyklos 55: 223-246.
Zimmerman, K.W. and Just, T. (2000). Interest groups, referenda, and the political process: On the efficiency of direct democracy. Constitutional Political Economy 11: 147-163.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Berggren, N., Karlson, N. Constitutionalism, Division of Power and Transaction Costs. Public Choice 117, 99–124 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1026105322993
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1026105322993
Keywords
- Transaction Cost
- Public Finance
- Political Action
- Good Thing
- Political Transaction