Van den Hauwe, Ludwig --- "Constitutional economics" [1999] ELECD 14; in Backhaus, G. Jürgen (ed), "The Elgar Companion to Law and Economics" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 1999)

Book Title: The Elgar Companion to Law and Economics

Editor(s): Backhaus, G. Jürgen

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781858985169

Section: Chapter 7

Section Title: Constitutional economics

Author(s): Van den Hauwe, Ludwig

Number of pages: 15

Extract:

7 Constitutional economics
Ludwig Van den Hauwe


Introduction
The term `constitutional economics' or `constitutional political economy'
was introduced in the 1970s to designate a distinct strand of research that
emerged from the somewhat older public choice branch of economics. In the
1990s, constitutional economics developed into a major reseach programme.
At a time of major worldwide constitutional change, it came as no surprise
that the focus of public choice discussion was shifted away from ordinary
political choices to the institutional-constitutional structure within which
politics takes place.
However, the subject matter is not new. Broadly conceived, constitutional
economics is an important component of a more general revival of the classi-
cal approach. It draws substantial inspiration from the encompassing theoretical
perspective and the reformist attitude that were characteristic of Adam Smith's
vision. Buchanan's constitutional political economy can be considered the
modern-day counterpart to what Smith called `the science of legislation', an
academic enterprise that seeks to bring closer together again the economic,
social, political, philosophical and legal perspectives that were once part of
the study of `moral philosophy'.
One might be tempted to characterize constitutional political economy
simply - and somewhat narrowly - as `the economic analysis of constitu-
tional law'. It cannot be denied that the examination of real-world constitutions
using the perspective of modern constitutional political economy is an inter-
esting exercise and may provide a kind of test for the usefulness of this
approach. Reference can be made to several interesting case studies.' How-
ever, ...