Formal Contributions to the Theory of Public Choice

Introduction. Book I: History. 1. Introductory notes. 2. Hobbes' contribution to abstract political science. 2. How expenditure of the tax proceeds came to be disregarded in the theory of incidence. 4. Historical notes: Pythagoreans, Reverend C. L. Dodgson, Knut Wicksell and Lord Keynes. 5. Some notes on the development structure and the theory of committees. Book II: Epistemology. 1. Introductory notes. 2. Some important distinctions: the traditional distinction between instrumental and independent action. 3. Rational behaviour. 4. The mechanisms of hedonistic choice. 5. The commensurability of intensities of desires (pleasures). 6. That the same mathematical model applies in epistemology. 7. The assumptions - imperfect knowledge, divided expectations and the discount. Book III: Logrolling. 1. Introductory notes. 2. On logrolling. 3. Logrolling. 4. Wicksell's use of the theory of committees on public finance. 5. The geometrical theory of a special majority geometry. 6. The theory of an international committee requiring a unanimous decision. 7. Dicey on logrolling. Book IV: Economics. 1. Introductory notes. 2. The concept of cost in economics. 3. Wicksteed's theorem that the concept of supply could be dispensed with and its narrower and wider implications. Book IV: Psychology. 1. Introductory notes. 2. The theory of relative utility following the second Austrian school. 3. Definition of relative weights and hypothesis that choice follows the Condorcet or Borda criterion. 4. A suggested application of the theory of committees in value and probability. Appendix I. Curriculum vitae of Duncan Black. Index.