Document Type : Scientific research

Authors

1 Master's student in public law, Department of Law, University of Judicial Sciences and Administrative Services, Tehran, Iran

2 Assistant Professor, Department of Law, University of Judicial Sciences and Administrative Services, Tehran, Iran

3 Assistant Professor, Economic Law group, Parliament Research Center, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

Constitutional political economy is a theoretical and interdisciplinary approach that seeks to explain the nature and function of diverse and alternative legal models that have a fundamental place in the institutional order of societies. This epistemological domain, on the one hand, has a close and structural relationship with the knowledge of Constitutional law, and on the other hand, by utilizing the analytical tools and conceptual capacities of economics, it attempts to analyze the motivational mechanisms of institutions and provide a coherent and effective framework for designing and regulating the rules governing economic and political behavior. In this article, the fundamental concepts of this approach are examined, and its relationship with legal discourse is analyzed. This article, by adopting a descriptive-analytical approach, shows that this approach's understanding of concepts such as constitutional rule and constitution, despite the similarities it has with the legal reading, has fundamental differences in theoretical foundations. This paper represents a preliminary step toward a conceptual dialogue between these two theoretical frameworks.

Keywords

Main Subjects

[1] Almedia, R. (2022). From ‘What Is New Political Economy’ to ‘Why Is Everything New Political Economy. Economic Thought, 10(2), 28-46. http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3271179
[2] Barendt, E. (1998). An Introduction to Constitutional Law. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
[3] Brennan, G.; Buchanan, J. (1980). The Power to Tax. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[4] Brennan, G.; Hamlin, A. (1998). Constitutional economics. in Thomas Ulen and Peter Newman (eds). The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics and the Law, London: Palgrave Macmillan, 401-410.
[5] Brennan, G.; Hamlin, A. (2013). Constitutions As Expressive Documents, in: Donald A. Wittman & Barry R. Weingast (eds.). The Oxford Handbook of Political Economy, Oxford University Press, 329–341.
[6] Brennan, G.; Kliemt, H. (2019). Fiscal powers revisited: The Leviathan model after 40 years. In: R. Congleton, B. Grofman, & S. Voigt (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Public Choice. Oxford University Press, vol. 2, 263 85.
[7] Buchanan, J.; Tullock, G. (1962). The Calculus of Consent Logical Foundations of Constitutional Democracy. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
[8] Buchanan, J.M. (1990). The Domain of Constitutional Political Economy, Constitutional Political Economy, 1, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02393031
[9] Buchanan, J.M. (2018). Constitutional Economics, in: Matias Vernengo, Esteban Perez Caldentey, Jayati Ghosh (eds), The new Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, Palgrave Macmillan London, 1109-1116.
[10] Congleton, R. (2011). Perfecting Parliament: Constitutional Reform, Liberalism, and the Rise of Western Democracy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[11] Congleton, R. (2018). Towards a Rule-Based Model of Human Choice: On the Nature of Homo Constitutionalus. in: Richard E. Wagner, James M. Buchanan: A Theorist of Political Economy and Social Philosophy, Palgrave Macmillan Cham, 769-805.
[12] Cooter, R. (2002). The strategic constitution, Princeton: Princeton University Press.
[13] Dadgar, Y. (2011). The Capacity of the constitutional Political Economy to Discipline Public Sector Management. Comparative Economics: Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies, 2, 109-133. (In Persian).
[14] Drazen, A. (2000), Political Economy in Macroeconomics, Princeton: Princeton University Press.
[15] Elkins, Z.; Ginsburg, T.; Melton, J. (2009), The endurance of national constitutions, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[16] Elster, J. (1984). Ulysses and the Sirens: Studies in Rationality and Irrationality. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[17] Elster, J. (2000). Ulysses Unbound: Studies in Rationality, Precommitment, and Constraints. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[18] Elster, J. (2000). Arguing and bargaining in two constituent assemblies. University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law, 2, 345 421.
[19] Gauthier, David. (1986). Morals by Agreement. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
[20] Ginsburg, T. (2010). Constitutional specificity, unwritten understandings and constitutional agreement. In (Sajo, A., & Utz, R., eds.) Constitutional topography: values and constitutions. Netherlands: Eleven International Publishing,
[21] Hadfield, G.; Weingast, B. (2014). Constitutions as coordinating devices. In: S. Galiani & I. Sened (eds.). Institutions, Property Rights, and Economic Growth: The Legacy of Douglass North. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 121-150.
[22] Hamlin, A. (2013). Constitutional Political Economy, in: Michael Reksulak, Laura Razzolini & William F. Shughart II. The Elgar Companion to Public Choice, Edward Elgar Publishing, 72-82.
[23] Hamlin, A. (2014). Reasoning about rules. Constitutional Political Economy, 25, 68-87. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10602-014-9153-3
[24] Hardin, R. (1989). Why a constitution? In: B. Grofman & D. Wittman (eds.). The Federalist Papers and the New Institutionalism. New York: Agathon Press, 100 20.
[25] Hardin, R. (2008). Constitutionalism, in: Donald A. Wittman & Barry R. Weingast (eds.). The Oxford Handbook of Political Economy. Oxford University Press, 289–311.
[26] Hart, H. L. A. (1961). The concept of law. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
[27] Hayek, F. (1945). The use of knowledge in society. The American Economic Review, 35(4), 519-530.
[28] Hayek, F. (1969). Rechtsordnung und Handelsordnung. in F. A. Hayek, Freiburger Studien. Tuebingen: J.C.B. Mohr.
[29] Hayek, F. (1973). Law, Legislation and Liberty, Vol. 1: Rules and Order. Chicago: Chicago University Press.
[30] Hayek, F. (1976). Law, Legislation and Liberty, Vol. 2: The Mirage of Social Justice. Chicago: Chicago University Press.
[31] Hayek, F. (1979). Law, Legislation and Liberty, Vol. 3: The Political Order of a Free People. Chicago: Chicago University Press.
[32] Hayek, F. (1988). The Fatal Conceit the Errors of Socialism, ed. by W. W. Bartley III. London: Routledge.
[33] Holmes, S. (1988). Precommitment and the paradox of democracy. In: J. Elster & R. Slagstad (eds.). Constitutionalism and Democracy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 195 240.
[34] Kadkhodaei, A.; Aghaei Togh, M. (2011). A Study of Foundations and Tools of Constitutional Economics and Its Application in the Constitutional Engineering. Comparative Law Quarterly, 21, 63-82. (In Persian).
[35] Momeni, F.; Zamani, R. (2013). An Analysis of Pattern of Development in Iran between Two Revolutions Based on Political Economy and Social Order. Strategy Quarterly, 69, 7-40. (In Persian).
[36] Ordeshook, P. (1992). Constitutional stability. Constitutional Political Economy, 3(2), 137 75. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02393118
[37] Ordeshook, P. (1993). Some Rules of Constitutional Design. in P. E. Frankel, F. Miller, and J. Paul, eds. Liberalism and the Economic Order, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 198–232.
[38] Pabst, A. (2014). The Constitutional vs. The Contractualist Tradition: A Foundational Divide in Political Economy, Paper presented at the Cambridge Research Seminar in Political Economy, February 6, Emmanuel College, Cambridge.
[39] Pabst, A.; Scazzieri, R. (2016). The Political Economy of Constitution. OEconomia, 6(6-3), 337-362. https://doi.org/10.4000/oeconomia.2433
[40] Pabst, A. (2018). Political Economy of Civil Society in: Ivano Cardinale & Roberto Scazzieri Ivano Cardinale & Roberto Scazzieri (eds.). The Palgrave Handbook of Political Economy. Palgrave Macmillan London, 289–331.
[41] Pasbani Sowme'eh, A. (2011). Constitutional Economics and Fairness. Research Bi-Quarterly of Theoretical Politics, 10, 63-86. (In Persian).
[42] Rawls, J. (1971). A Theory of Justice. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
[43] Rowley, C. (1997). Introduction: The relevance of public choice for constitutional political economy, in: Charles K. Rowley (ed.). Constitutional Political Economy in a Public Choice Perspective. Dordrecht: Springer Dordrecht, 1-10.
[44] Smith, A. (1778). An Enquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. Indianapolis, IN: Liberty Fund.
[45] Tullock, G. (1987). Autocracy. Dordrecht: Dordrecht: Kluwer.
[46] Van den Hauwe, L. (2000). Public Choice, Constitutional Political Economy and Law and Economics, Economics, Law, Political Science, 1, 603-652.
[47] Van den Hauwe, L. (2005). Constitutional economics. in J. G. Backhaus (ed.). The Elgar Companion to Law and Economics. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 223–238.
[48] Vanberg, V. (1998). Constitutional Political Economy. in J. B. Davis, D. W. Hands, and U. Mäki, (eds.) The Handbook of Economic Methodology. MA: Edward Elgar, 69–75.
[49] Vanberg, V. (2005). Market and State: The Perspective of Constitutional Political Economy. Journal of Institutional Economics 1(01), 23-49. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1744137405000032
[50] Vanberg, G.; Vanberg, V. (2017). Contractarian Perspectives in Law and Economics. In: Francesco Parisi (ed.). The Oxford Handbook of Law and Economics: Volume 1: Methodology and Concepts. London: Oxford University, 246–267.
[51] Vanberg, V. (2018). Constitutional Political Economy. in: Ivano Cardinale & Roberto Scazzieri (eds.). The Palgrave Handbook of Political Economy. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 259–287.
[52] Voigt, S. (1992). On the internal consistency of Hayek's evolutionary-oriented constitutional economics — Some general remarks. Journal des Economistes et des Etudes Humaines 3(4), 461—476. doi.org/10.1515/jeeh-1992-0403
[53] Voigt, S. (1997). Positive constitutional economics: A survey. in: Charles K. Rowley (ed.). Constitutional Political Economy in a Public Choice Perspective. Dordrecht: Springer Dordrecht, 11-53.
[54] Voigt, S. (2017). Constitutional Economics and the Law. In: Francesco Parisi (ed.). The Oxford Handbook of Law and Economics: Volume 1: Methodology and Concepts. London: Oxford University, 202–221.
[55] Voigt, S. (2020a). Constitutional Economics: A primer. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[56] Voigt, S. (2020b). Institutional Economics: An Introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[57] Weingast, B. R.; Wittman, D. (2006), The Oxford Handbook of Political Economy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
[58] Young, A. (2019). How Austrians can Contribute to Constitutional Political Economy (and Why they Should). The Review of Austrian Economics, 32, 281-293. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11138-019-00482-9
 
CAPTCHA Image