James M. Buchanan

Politicians and bureaucrats are no different from the rest of us. They will maximize their incentives just like everybody else.

— James M. Buchanan

Politics is a romantic search for the good and the true and the beautiful.

— James M. Buchanan

People share a universal behavioural trait: if there are profits to be made, the effort to get that money will attract investment.…

— James M. Buchanan

If you have an area where high-income receivers concentrate, you have a higher fiscal capacity. That fiscal capacity is a valuable resource…

— James M. Buchanan

How would the US be different today if people coming off the boat were greeted with a welfare check instead of a…

— James M. Buchanan

“The elementary and basic approach that I suggest places “the theory of markets” and not the “theory of resource allocation” at center…

— James M. Buchanan

It is much more difficult to get implemented politically what might be desirable economically. Even if you came out with an economic…

— James M. Buchanan

You can get a coalition of senators from particular states in America, for example, who want to construct highways or dams or…

— James M. Buchanan

“Despotism may be the only organizational alternative to the political structure that we observe.”

— James M. Buchanan

Imagine that Queen Elizabeth I, in her time, had the opportunity to give out a monopoly for playing cards within the kingdom.…

— James M. Buchanan

You have to have a government to provide you with legal order, with stability, enforcement of property rights, enforcement of contracts, definition…

— James M. Buchanan

The assumption that we can keep societies open and free to everybody is going to have to stop. We are going to…

— James M. Buchanan

If you are going to spend for one group, you have to spend the same for every group, just like if you…

— James M. Buchanan

Liberals have lost the soul. We haven't recognized the necessity of defending our own system at the level of ideas. We have…

— James M. Buchanan

I think the world has changed dramatically since September 11th. It should force us to recognize that we are going to have…

— James M. Buchanan

Building on the public's unwillingness to act on principle in support of market solutions to apparent problems, whether real or imagined, these…

— James M. Buchanan

I have long been in favor of a balanced budget restriction at the level of the federal government of the United States.…

— James M. Buchanan

America is perhaps excessively mobile in the sense that there is sometimes not enough stability in communities. Dynamism in the economy is…

— James M. Buchanan

If politicians get money to spend and don't have to be responsible for taxation, then of course that will bias their attitude…

— James M. Buchanan

“I want economists to quit concerning themselves with allocation problems, per se, with the problem, as it has been traditionally defined. The…

— James M. Buchanan

Once you have an equalization instrument in place, as you have in Canada, there arise tremendous bureaucratic values - bureaucratic rent so…

— James M. Buchanan

Politically, sometimes you get situations where rent control will go through. It is especially true in an emergency, where there is a…

— James M. Buchanan

We want to limit the exploitation of the fiscal capacity of the richer regions by keeping down the rate of immigration to…

— James M. Buchanan

If you create an artificial scarcity through public policy, artificial rent so to speak - setting up a new import quota or…

— James M. Buchanan

Clearly, I am not an anarchist. Philosophically, I might be, but I think in practical terms.

— James M. Buchanan