Undergraduate Seminar on Pubic Choice for the 21st Century

Below please find a proposal to host a weekend seminar at Christopher Newport

University (CNU) for undergraduates that would follow the model used in the Advanced Topics
in Liberty series co-sponsored by the Institute for Humane Studies and Liberty Fund. The
seminar will provide students with a structured academic experience and the opportunity to
discuss assigned readings in a meaningful format with peers and professors. The theme of the
seminar will be Pubic Choice for the 21st Century and will be centered around excerpts from
The Calculus of Consent by James Buchanan and Gordon Tullock and supplementary readings
as indicated below.
Seminar schedule:
FRIDAY
4 - 4:30 pm

Registration and refreshments

4:30 5pm

Welcome and introduction

5 6:30pm

Session 1: Politics without Romance

Readings:

6:30 7:30pm

Reception

7:30pm

Dinner

9pm

Hospitality

Calculus of Consent, Ch. 1

Public Choice: Politics Without Romance. James M.
Buchanan Policy, the quarterly review of The Centre for
Independent Studies. Spring 2003.

SATURDAY
8 9am

Breakfast (optional)

9 10:30am

Session 2: Methodological Individualism

Readings:

Calculus of Consent, Chs. 2, 3 and 4

10:30 11am

Coffee break

11am 12:30pm

Session 3: Collective Action

Readings:

Calculus of Consent, Chs. 5 & 6

12:30 1:30pm

Lunch

1:30 2:30pm

Introduction to liberty advancing careers

2:30 4:45

Free time

4:45 5pm

Coffee, soft drinks, snacks

5 6:30pm

Session 4: Majority Voting Rule

Readings: Calculus of Consent, Chs. 9 and 10
Excerpt from The Myth of the Rational Voter
Why Democracies Choose Bad Policies by Bryan Caplan

6:45pm

Depart for dinner at a local restaurant

9pm

Hospitality

SUNDAY
8 9am

Breakfast (optional)

9 10:30am

Session 5: Rent Seeking

Readings:
Calculus of Consent, Ch. 19
Excerpt from Bootleggers and Baptists: How Economic Forces and Moral
Persuasion Interact to Shape Regulatory Politics by Adam Smith and
Bruce Yandle.

10:30 11am

Coffee break

11am 12:30pm

Session 6: Politics of the Good Society

Readings:

Calculus of Consent, ch. 20

12:30 1:30pm

Lunch

1:30

Participants depart