The Light at the End Nears

My final class of grad school--Constitutional Economics--is this term, so I'll walk in May.

Why this one? Utility maximizer that I am, it's simply my best available option. Of the evening classes offered this spring, this one seemed the most interesting and thought-provoking. I might have opted for Law & Economics if it were offered (depending on the syllabus), since I'm more policy oriented than philosophical.

The only thing between me and graduation is some assignments, a final, and a paper. Oh, and this gargantuan reading list. And yes, the 21 italicized items are books (and one of those is in three volumes). Apologies if you don't hear much from me for a while.

• James M. Buchanan, “Economics as a Public Science”
• Albert Hirschman, The Passions and the Interests
• Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations, book 5
• Ludwig von Mises, Liberalism
• Milton Friedman, Capitalism and Freedom
• Milton and Rose Friedman, Free to Choose
• F.A. Hayek, The Road to Serfdom
• F.A. Hayek, The Constitution of Liberty
• F.A. Hayek, Law Legislation and Liberty (3 vols.)
• James M. Buchanan, The Logical Foundations of Constitutional Liberty (vol. 1 of Collected Works)
• James M. Buchanan & Gordon Tullock, The Calculus of Consent
• James M. Buchanan, The Limits of Liberty
• James M. Buchanan & Geoffrey Brennan, The Reason of Rules
• Vincent Ostrom, The Meaning of Democracy and the Vulnerabilities of Democracies
• Elinor Ostrom, Understanding Institutional Diversity
• Paul Aligica and Peter Boettke, Challenging Institutional Analysis and Development
• Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson, Economic Origins of Dictatorship and
Democracy
• Mancur Olson, “Dictatorship, Democracy and Development,” APSR, 1993
• Douglass North, John Wallis and Barry Weingast, Violence and Social Order
• Edward Stringham (ed.), Anarchy and the Law