This Symposium commemorates the fiftieth anniversary of the Public Choice Society. The Society was founded by Jim Buchanan and Gordon Tullock after the tremendous early success of The Calculus of Consent (1962), prompting the two

…to initiate and organize a small research conference in Charlottesville in April 1963. We brought together economists, political scientists, sociologists, and scholars from other disciplines, all of whom were engaged in research outside the boundaries of their disciplines. The discussion was sufficiently stimulating to motivate the formation of a continuing organization, which we first called the Committee on Non-Market Decision-Making, and to initiate plans for a journal initially called Papers on Non-Market Decision-Making… [A]fter several annual meetings there emerged the new name “public choice,” for both the organization and the journal. In this way the Public Choice Society and the journal Public Choice came into being. (Buchanan 2003, p. 1)

Since that initial gathering the Society has held research conferences every spring and always with the same objective: to facilitate the exchange of research and ideas across social science disciplines in order to better understand collective action, or non-market decision making.

Buchanan was the first president of the Society, followed by Tullock, then William Riker, and next Vincent Ostrom. Table 1 lists all 26 presidents of the Society’s first 50 years. At the 1967 meeting, William Mitchell and James S. Coleman proposed the new name, which “won by a small plurality over ‘social choice’, ‘the new political economy’, and ‘the economics of politics’” (Mitchell 1988, p. 117). Some readers may note irony in the Public Choice Society holding an election to settle on its name. Also in 1967, the Society presidency was changed from a one- to a two-year term. An informal norm quickly emerged by which each sitting president would name the succeeding president, traditionally in rotation among disciplines.

Table 1 Presidents of the Public Choice Society’s first 50 years
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As Buchanan’s account hints, the histories of the Society and the journal are intertwined. For example, when the journal was officially renamed in 1968, Tullock’s Editorial Note revealed:

With this issue Papers on Non-Market Decision Making becomes Public Choice and at the same time its general institutional and financial backing is considerably strengthened. The newly founded Public Choice Society will act as sponsor of the journal, and I am happy to say that the National Science Foundation has made a grant to cover its financial support for 3 years. We are still a struggling journal, but our struggles will be a little bit less desperate in the future. (Tullock 1968, p. 1)

Readers might also note irony in the Public Choice Society depending on federal funds, at least initially. In any case, the ensuing years would demonstrate the magnitude of Tullock’s understatement. First-rate scholars from a number of disciplines and across the globe would gravitate to the Society. Sister societies would form in Europe and Japan, and the journal would soon become one of the highest ranked in the social sciences. The interaction of public choice scholars, through the journal and the society, would fundamentally impact participants’ home disciplines. Research agendas that were forged through this interaction would rediscover or spawn entirely new fields of scholarship, with now familiar monikers like Virginia political economy, social choice, experimental economics, positive political economy, and the Bloomington School, which challenged and offered viable alternatives to conventional work in public administration and collective action. Generations of scholars came to count on the Society’s yearly gatherings to exchange ideas, catch up with friends, and discover new lines of research.

The 50th anniversary conference maintained these traditions and set the stage for the Society’s next 50 years. Held March 7–10, 2013, in New Orleans at the historic Monteleone Hotel, the Society returned to perhaps its most favored and beloved stop over the years. With 64 concurrent sessions and four plenary sessions, the conference featured 263 presentations and drew over 250 attendees. The Saturday awards luncheon memorialized Jim Buchanan with a screening of the short documentary, “Daring to Be Different: Reflections on the Life and Work of James Buchanan,” (George Mason University Libraries 2012). The luncheon also paid tribute to Elinor and Vincent Ostrom, with remarks by James Walker and Roberta Herzberg plus a screening of Barbara Allen’s short documentary, “The Artisanship and Science of Institutional Design” (Allen 2012). Special concurrent sessions recognized the 20th anniversary of Democracy in Decision by Geoff Brennan and Loren Lomasky (1993) and two recent books that document the history of public choice thought, The Clash of Economic Ideas by Larry White (2012) and Madmen, Intellectuals, and Academic Scribblers by Wayne Leighton and Edward Lopez (2013). Importantly, over a fifth of the attendees were students.

Aside from those highlights, the true heart and soul of the 50th anniversary conference were its four plenary sessions, which are here listed in Table 2. Each session presented four papers within four of the main pillars of public choice: Virginia political economy, Bloomington political economy, experimental economics, and Social Choice. The 16 presenters were invited to speak on a topic of their choice, with the stated hope that they would emphasize the role of the Public Choice Society in the development of their field while also conveying its vibrancy as an ongoing research program. Thus, each of the plenary sessions took on a reflective stance while pushing steadily forward.

Table 2 Plenary Sessions at the 50th anniversary conference of the Public Choice Society
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These plenary presentations form the basis of the symposium before you. Unfortunately, four of the 16 papers never found their way into the final mix. Yet by James Walker’s entrepreneurial suggestion, Michael Fotos’s excellent piece is included here although it was not on a plenary session. My goal in assembling these 13 papers is to pay homage to the Society’s first 50 years while also demonstrating the breadth and vibrancy of modern public choice scholarship. Paraphrasing Tullock’s (1966) Preface to volume 1 of Papers on Non-Market Decision Making, whether I am to be thanked or criticized I will leave to the reader.