Richard Swedberg has been on the forefront of the integration of economics and sociology. I had a few minutes this morning so I was flipping through Principles of Economic Sociology. I stumbled upon his section on public choice and new institutional economics. Swedberg argues that political sociologists could learn a lot from this literature. In particular:
One example is rent-seeking or the attempt by an actor to withdraw resources for her own disposal from the free market (for the original formulation, see Krueger 1974; for a discussion of its use in economics, see Tullock 1987). Very few attempts, however, have been made in sociology to use this concept (for an exception, see Sorensen 2000).
This concept has been quite useful in my research, but I can’t say the same for other sociologists with whom I have spoken. My guess is that political sociologists (who usually lean to the left) see public choice as a tool used only by rightwing economists. This is a huge mistake. Along with James Buchanan and Gordon Tullock, I consider new left historian Gabriel Kolko to be one of the founding fathers of public choice. One of his best books, The Triumph of Conservatism, chronicles corporate rent-seeking during the Progressive Era in order to explain the rise of what he calls ”political capitalism” (though I’ve heard that Kolko himself gets upset when people compare him to the public choice school as well).
I’m well aware of the public choice literature in economics (Buchanan, Tullock, Wagner, Olsen, and the Ostroms, etc.), but can someone name some sociologists doing what might be considered public choice theory in the broad sense?
- Josh McCabe
Paul Burstein’s work on public opinion fits broadly into this category. Edgar Kiser and Michael Hechter’s work would probably also fit into this category.
Walter Lippmann would be a good example of a leftish public choice, though he seems to be more optimistic about the outcome. In his view it seems like democracy is indistinguishable from elite rule.
Robert Putnam?