Public Choice: Toward Future Oriented Studies

Abstract

　I am very honored to contribute an article to this issue of Public Choice Studies as the 4th President of the Japan Public Choice Society: 2009－2012.

　The founders of Public Choice Society, such as Buchanan, Tullock, Downs, Olson, and Niskanen, tried to challenge the failure of Arrow’s Social Choice Theory to reflect realities.

　I would like to stress four points in this research field and method in order to further Public Choice studies in Japan. First, Public Choice scholars should undertake research on global issues beyond nation - state boundaries. Second, they should consider analyses of economic or political crisis and increasing catastrophes in the global scale. Third, although scholars in this field usually do not carry out the data collection, it is becoming more important for them to attempt to collect primary data through surveys. Fourth, given the dominance of Public Choice studies on the industrialized western societies, it is necessary to encourage studies about non - western societies.