July 20, 2017

To the Editor:

Democracy in Chains author Nancy MacLean misrepresents my criticism of her connecting the work of my late colleague James Buchanan to that of John C. Calhoun (Nancy MacLean Responds to Her Critics, The Chronicle Review, July 19). My criticism is not that she drew a parallel between Buchanans political economy and that of John C. Calhoun. Instead, my criticism as I say plainly in the essay linked in your report is of her claim that the core ideas of Buchanan (and of others scholars who work in Buchanans tradition) come from John C. Calhoun. Had MacLean merely drawn a parallel between Buchanans efforts to study and compare different constitutional rules and Calhouns similar efforts, Id have raised no protest. But by asserting in her interview with the New Republic that Buchanans ideas trace back to John C. Calhoun andin her book describing Calhoun as the intellectual lodestar of Buchanan and others who work in the classical-liberal tradition she is demonstrably mistaken.

First, Buchanan never mentions Calhoun in any of his vast writings. Second, in an appendix to The Calculus of Consent his most famous book (co-authored with Gordon Tullock) Buchanan not only explicitly identifies several political thinkers as inspiration (nearly all of whom, by the way, pre-date Calhoun), he also explains in detail how their works influenced his own; these explicitly identified precursors to Buchanans political thought include Johannes Althusius, Thomas Hobbes, David Hume, Wilhelm von Humboldt, James Madison, and Baruch Spinoza. Again, they do not include Calhoun.

Somehow overlooking Buchanans own very clear mention of the thinkers whose ideas he found to be especially influential, MacLean contrary to all available evidence claimed in her book and in her interview that the major inspiration for Buchanans ideas is Calhoun. That claim is not only unsubstantiated, it is preposterous.

Donald J. Boudreaux Professor of Economics and Martha and Nelson Getchell Chair for the Study of Free Market Capitalism at the Mercatus Center George Mason University Fairfax, Va.

Go here to see the original:

Author's Claim That Calhoun Was Major Inspiration for Nobel-Winning Libertarian Is Absurd - The Chronicle of Higher Education (blog)