In modern western economists, there are always two completely different views: one is that the government can correct the market defects, which has been questioned by all sides in developed countries, because the national debt is out of control and the government's various adjustment measures eventually suffocate the economy; Another group of economists have been deeply skeptical about the government's ability to correct market defects. James Mcgill Buchanan, an American economist, and several other pioneers innovated the economic analysis tools of government behavior with their public choice theory.
The foundation of public choice theory is based on a very simple but controversial fundamental idea, that is, people who hold public office are rational and selfish people, and their behavior can be understood by analyzing the various incentives faced by these public officials during their term of office. The main inference of this idea is that the government's defects are at least as serious as the market, so the government may not be able to correct the market's mistakes, but it may actually make them worse. This theory attacks the theory cherished by two powerful academic groups: a group of economists believe that the government can realize public interests by adopting the prescription of "welfare economics", while a group of political scientists believe that diversified competition among interest groups will benefit the public. In short, the purpose of public choice theory is to bring the above two aspects of human behavior back into a single model, which points out that the characteristic of social behavior model is that people who are active in economic market or political market handle the process of human decision-making in different ways. All traditional models regard economic decision-making as an internal change of the system and political decision-making as an external factor, and people refuse to discuss the law and generation of these external factors. The model points out that the person who bears the political decision-making result should be the person who chooses the decision-maker. These words laid the foundation of the whole public choice theory and introduced economics into a brand-new field.
First of all, Buchanan pointed out the dilemma of "economic man" and state theory: economics takes the cost-benefit analysis of "economic man" as the only tool, while the state theory as political science takes the state as the starting point. The separation of these two disciplines makes the analysis of economic behavior and the analysis of government behavior belong to two different conceptual systems. Buchanan pointed out that the country is not the creation of God, and it has no omniscient and correct talent. Because the country is still a one-person organization, the people who make decisions here are no different from others, neither better nor worse, and these people will make mistakes. Therefore, the national political theory based on moral myth will fall into a difficult predicament as soon as it meets the practical problem of "economic man". To this end, Buchanan pointed out, "We must get rid of the economic man driven by egoism and narrow personal interests on the one hand, and the logical fiction of the extraordinary country on the other hand, and apply the method of investigating the defects and faults of the market economy to all departments of the country and the public economy." In this way, all the analysis has a common starting point: economic man-when people have to choose among several options, they will be more willing to choose the method that can bring them more benefits. Behind this is always the calculation of the cost and benefit of this choice, no matter whether the cost is clear or vague. When this premise is applied to the analysis of microeconomics and government behavior, we will find that its consequences are completely different. It was here that Buchanan began to analyze government behavior. ? 9? 0? 9? 0? 9? 0? 9? 0hz/p & gt；
On this basis, Buchanan summarized the government model into three completely different types:
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The second model was compared by Buchanan as "a giant with independent interests". Under this model, the government's goal is to maximize its own interests, such as maximizing fiscal revenue to meet the needs of officials' life and power. Some underdeveloped countries' regimes belong to this model. According to Buchanan's analysis, although this is an extreme form of government power expansion, it at least shows that it is necessary to give legal restraint and supervision to the government's economic behavior.
The third is the western democratic government model. Buchanan assumes that all members of society participate in political decision-making through votes, and the economic behavior of the government is directly restricted by democratic voting, so the orientation of government decision-making is often subject to the decisive factor of public choice. According to the starting point of "economic man", Buchanan believes that even that kind of "giant" is more realistic than a benevolent autocratic monarch in this democratic model. The government of modern capitalist countries is actually between the democratic model and the giant model.
Buchanan's division of government models laid the foundation for the future theory of public choice. It is under this theoretical premise that neo-liberal economists have constructed a set of general theories about bureaucracy, which has deepened the economic analysis of political science. The Swedish Academy of Royal Sciences objectively summed up the achievements of this outstanding economist at the Nobel Prize awarding ceremony in 1986: "Buchanan's work filled a gap in traditional economics, because traditional economics lacked independent political decision-making theory."
Buchanan's public choice theory has opened up an unprecedented broad development space for economics. If economics flies high in front of him, Hayek, Muir, etc. It is a milestone and important. What happened to Chennai? Knock on the bush? Hey? What is wrong with me? Tomb? Are you embarrassed? What about magnesium? Meizhi tomb? Hey? What is wrong with me? What's the matter with you? T is not good? Within 30 years, many theoretical followers of Buchanan have become increasingly prominent representatives of "institutional economics". 1992 the theory of "path dependence" put forward by Douglas north, the winner of the nobel prize in economics, has a historical perspective on the root causes of the pains in the transition period of socialist countries. In recent years, China has encountered many difficulties in its reform. The younger generation of economists began to turn their attention to institutional economics, which has only risen for more than ten years, and are eager to apply the theoretical essence of this school to the reform practice in China.