Gordon Tullock's Legacy: An Introduction.

• Author: Storr, Virgil Henry

Gordon Tullock was one of the founding fathers of the Virginia School of Political Economy. By consistently applying the insights and tools of economics to the questions of political science, his efforts have contributed significantly to political economy. In particular, the approach he advanced employs the assumption that actors are rational, self-interested, and goal oriented, whether they are acting as individuals in the private sector or in their capacity as voters and government officials, to understand the difficulty and importance of constitutional construction, the challenges of bureaucracy, the nature of regulations, the problem of rent seeking, and the limits of voting. Tullock's research also covers a range of topics beyond economics, including political science, law, biology, philosophy of science, and the public policy of income redistribution.

Trained as a lawyer at the University of Chicago and having spent considerable time in the military and the foreign service, Tullock was frequently able to glean aspects of the social world that other social theorists simply missed, and he almost always articulated his insights in a manner that set his economic writings apart. The most paradigmatic example of this, perhaps, is his discussion of government policies to promote safe driving. Rather than adopting policies such as mandating seatbelts or other measures that make "the inside of the car" safer for the driver, Tullock observed that "making the inside of the car less safe can increase the private cost to the driver of having an accident" (McKenzie and Tullock 2012, 40). Policies that increase the likelihood that a driver will walk away unharmed from an accident will also increase the likelihood that drivers will be reckless. To drive the point home, Tullock asked the question, "Suppose the government were to require a dagger be mounted on the steering column pointed at the driver's chest. Would the driver not be inclined to drive more safely?" (40). His conclusion was as surprising as it was logical. Moreover, it was consistent with his approach to political economy, which insisted that actors, regardless of setting and circumstances, are always self-interested creatures who weigh the costs and benefits of their actions.

The four papers in this symposium explore the legacy of Gordon Tullock. The paper by Peter Boettke and Rosolino Candela as well as the paper by Richard Wagner attempt to highlight the important features of...