The Economics and Politics of Wealth Redistribution

by Gordon Tullock, Charles K. Rowley

Overview

The role of the democratic state in the redistribution of wealth is the topic of this readable and lively examination of an often controversial issue. Using public choice and rent-seeking analysis as a basis, Tullock discusses the role of the democratic state in the redistribution of wealth. He adds a refreshing dose of realism to a field of economics that is often dominated by idealistic visions.

Gordon Tullock is Professor Emeritus of Law at George Mason University, where he was Distinguished Research Fellow in the Center for Study of Public Choice and UniversityProfessor of Law and Economics. He also taught at the Universityof South Carolina, the Universityof Virginia, Rice University, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, and the Universityof Arizona. In 1966 he founded the journal that became Public Choice and remained its editor until 1990.

Charles K. Rowley was Duncan Black Professor of Economics at George Mason Universityand a Senior Fellow of the James M. Buchanan Center for Political Economy at George Mason University. He was also General Director of the Locke Institute.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780865975378
Publisher:	Liberty Fund, Incorporated
Publication date:	08/12/2005
Series:	The Selected Works of Gordon Tullock , #7
Edition description:	Volume 7
Pages:	399
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.00(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

Table of Contents

Introduction, by Charles K. Rowley ix

1. WHY REDISTRIBUTE WEATLH?
Income Redistribution 3
Helping the Poor 11
Reasons for Redistribution [1983] 23
Reasons for Redistribution [1986] 42
Objectives of Income Redistribution 71

2. PRIVATE AND SEMIPRIVATE REDISTRIBUTION
MECHANISMS
Charitable Gifts 89
Local Redistribution 117
Aid in Kind 133
Demand Revealing, Transfers, and Rent Seeking 142
Epilogue—The Grating People 149

3. REDISTRIBUTIVE POLITICS
The Machiavellians and the Well-Intentioned 155
Helping the Poor vs. Helping the Well-Organized 171
Horizontal Transfers 179
Information and Logrolling 198
The Mixed Case 217
General Welfare or Welfare for the Poor Only 245

4. THE EXPANDING FRONTIERS OF WEALTH REDISTRIBUTION
Old Age Pensions 263
Risk, Charity, and Miscellaneous Aspects of Social Security 278
Education and Medicine 294
Administrative Transfers 319
Giving Life 339

5. WHAT TO DO—WHAT TO DO 355

Index 369

Editorial Reviews

—John Burroughs, Midwest Book Review Burroughs’ Bookshelf, December 2005

From the Publisher