science

Virginia school of political economy

Virginia school of political economy is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Virginia school of political economy rather than just read about it. In short: The Virginia School of political economy is a school of economic thought originating at the Thomas Jefferson Center for Studies in Political Economy of the University of Virginia in the 1950s and 1960s. Some of its proponents established the Center for Study of Public Choice at Virginia Tech in 1969, moving it to George Mason University in 1983.

Key takeaways

Virginia school of political economy belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
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Connect Virginia school of political economy to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Virginia school of political economy from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Virginia School of political economy is a school of economic thought originating at the Thomas Jefferson Center for Studies in Political Economy of the University of Virginia in the 1950s and 1960s. Some of its proponents established the Center for Study of Public Choice at Virginia Tech in 1969, moving it to George Mason University in 1983. The school focuses primarily on public choice theory, constitutional economics, and law and economics.

Development The Virginia school emerged first at the Thomas Jefferson Center at the University of Virginia established by James M. Buchanan and G. Warren Nutter in 1957. It was there that Ronald Coase formulated his famous theorem on the problem of social cost (1960) and that Buchanan and Gordon Tullock wrote The Calculus of Consent in 1962. The latter would form the basis of the Virginia school of thought, as the foundational text in public choice theory. In 1969, Buchanan, Tullock, and Charles J. Goetz established the Center for Study of Public Choice at Virginia Tech, which moved with them to George Mason University in 1983. Other prominent scholars associated with the school include Dennis C. Mueller, Robert D. Tollison, Andrew B. Whinston, and Leland B. Yeager.

Economic approach The Virginia approach to political economy focuses on comparing private and public sector institutions as imperfect alternatives. The Virginia approach is also favored by some economists of the Chicago and Austrian schools. Virginia School economists are often seen as 'fellow travelers' with Austrian economists, as members of both schools of economic thought generally favor free-market outcomes. There are several main lines of research in the Virginia School. James Buchanan and Gordon Tullock were among the earliest economists to apply economic analysis to national constitutions; this is one of the greatest and longest-lasting contributions that The Calculus of Consent made in the field of public choice. Tullock also founded the modern rent seeking literature. Mancur Olson founded modern research on collective action and special interest groups. Olson taught at the University of Maryland, not one of the universities of Virginia, but his work deals with ideas that are central to the Virginia school of thought, including the effects of special interest groups. Despite some common ground, the Virginia School is opposed to the Chicago school of political economy on two fundamental points. Chicago believes that politics tends towards efficiency due to the fact that free-riders provoke stiffening resistance in risk takers, because of the exponentially increasing deadweight loss imposed by free-riding. Chicago also believes that, because political markets tend towards efficiency, policy advice by scholars is irrelevant. Charles Rowley is a prominent opponent of these notions: in the Encyclopedia of Public Choice he writes that Chicago's "... interpretation of the political process emanates from a fundamentally flawed application of ... microeconomics to the political marketplace ... [W]hile the Journal of Political Economy publishes papers that defend the U.S. federal farm program as an efficient mechanism for transferring income to poor farmers, there is justifiable cause to worry whether CPE [Chicago political economy] scholars and their journal editors ever look out from their ivory towers and survey the real world." The Public Choice Society, a 501(c)(3) organization that facilitates research and discussion of the social sciences, is an outgrowth of the Virginia School.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Virginia school of political economy

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Virginia school of political economy claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Virginia school of political economy before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Virginia school of political economy ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Virginia school of political economy

In research: Virginia school of political economy appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Virginia school of political economy in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Virginia school of political economy is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1957 establishments in Virginia, Law and economics, Public choice theory, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Virginia school of political economy outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Virginia school of political economy in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Virginia school of political economy means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
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Frequently asked questions

What is Virginia school of political economy in simple terms?

Why does Virginia school of political economy matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Virginia school of political economy?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Virginia school of political economy.