On Some Fundamental Issues in Political Economy: An Exchange of Correspondence

Abstract

The letter printed below are published by the correspondents with the hope that they will stimulate discussion and creative rethinking about some fundamental and interesting issues that are often ignored in the conduct of economic analysis and research and the application of traditional tools and concepts. The issues, we are aware, are not novel. Our conflicts and apprehensions replicate, in varying degree, past methodological controversies. But we are convinced that the fundamental nature of the topics argued warrants continuing re-examination. Just as each generation of economists has the burden of interpreting for itself the history of the discipline, each generation also confronts, directly or indirectly, the problem of the methodological foundations of economic analysis. Moreover, as the discussions in the letters illustrate, methodological issues are closely related to normative or policy positions, although the relations are often ambiguous and equivocal.

Originally published in Journal of Economic Issues, vol. 9 (March 1975), pp. 15–38.

James M. Buchanan is Professor of Economics, George Mason University, and Nobel Laureate in Economic Science.