RESEARCH

John Meadowcroft’s research focuses on the challenges faced by free, open societies to remain free and open. He has used the analytical framework of public choice theory and constitutional political economy, and insights from the history of economic and political thought, to do this.

More specifically, he has pursued a multidisciplinary research agenda in the following areas.

British slavery and the slave trade

John is presently engaged in a research project analysing Britain’s participation in plantation slavery and the Transatlantic slavery trade through the lens of entangled political economy. This first article from this project, an analysis of the British abolition campaign as a constitutional reform brought about by self-interested political actors, was published in Public Choice.

James Buchanan and constitutional political economy

James M. Buchanan, the principal founder and theoretician of public choice and constitutional political economy, was concerned with the institutional requirements of peaceful cooperation among individuals with diverse, sometimes conflicting, ends.

John has written a biography of Buchanan, published by Continuum in 2010 and revised in paperback by Bloomsbury in 2013, and a series of articles engaging with different aspects of Buchanan’s work: examining the account of power used in public choice theory (Public Choice 2014); setting out the relevance of the American founding for Buchanan’s constitutional economics (Public Choice, 2020); critically evaluating Buchanan’s demogrant proposal (Constitutional Political Economy 2021, with Otto Lehto); analysing the place of slavery and freedom in Buchanan’s theory of politics-as-exchange (Journal of Institutional Economics, 2023); comparing Buchanan’s theory of constitutionalism with that of Vincent Ostrom (Constitutional Political Economy, 2024, with Paul Lewi,s) and analysing the ideas of asymmetrical, symmetrical and artifactual man in his work (Cambridge Journal of Economics, 2024, with Alain Marciano).

The ethics of markets

John has written extensively on the ethics of markets. His first book, The Ethics of the Market (Palgrave, 2005), examined liberal and libertarian accounts of the important place of a market economy in a free society.

He has also researched the role of social capital in an advanced economy, showing that commercial relationships may be an important source of the ‘thin’ social capital essential to a complex, advanced social order, whereas adversarial political processes may consume but not replenish this social capital (Resucing Social Capital from Social Democracy, Institute of Economic Affairs, 2007, with Mark Pennington; Review of Austrian Economics, 2008, with Mark Pennington).

He has also recently critically evaluated the explanations for the predominance of egalitarian views among academic philosophers offered by Hayek and Nozick, arguing that the prevalence of such commitments comes from the institutional structure of academic philosophy, not the personality-type of academic philosophers (Social Philosophy and Policy, 2022).

F. A. Hayek and Austrian economics

John has a long-standing research interest in the work of F. A. Hayek and Austrian economics. He co-wrote an empirical critique of Hayek’s road to serfdom thesis, showing that the dynamics of rent seeking meant social democratic mixed economies were relatively stable, whereas small and big government alternatives were less stable (Political Studies, 2014, with Andre Azevedo Alves). He has also written on Hayek’s relationship with the Pinochet regime in Chile (Review of Political Economy, 2014, with William Ruger).

John has also questioned the paucity of Austrian economists not ideologically committed to free markets (Advances in Austrian Economics, 2019) and used Austrian ideas to develop an ethical defence of private sector enterprises as an efficient means of meeting the needs of people not personally known to us (Journal of Markets and Morality, 2007)

Robert Nozick and theories of justice

In an article delivered as a keynote lecture at the 2024 Braga Meetings on Ethics and Political Philosophy, John had argued that Nozick’s Anarchy, State, and Utopia was a work of ideal theory proposing a novel account of the emergence of the state intended to serve as a new moral foundation for liberal thought and practice (Public Affairs Quarterly, 2024).

John also co-edited The Cambridge Companion to Nozick’s Anarchy, State, and Utopia (Cambridge University Press, 2011, with Ralf Bader), and contributed a chapter on Nozick’s critique of John Rawls’ A Theory of Justice.

The far right and the collective action problem

John has also empirically studied how far right groups solve the collective action problem, showing how the English Defence League provided the selective incentives of access to violence, group solidarity and increased self-worth, which outweighed the costs of time, money and stigma for individuals who became activists (Political Studies, 2017, with Elizabeth Morrow).

A second article explained the rise and fall of the EDL in terms of the ability of the group to supply direct personal benefits in the light of internal and external factors including policing strategies and the presence of ‘marginal members’ who threatened to undermine the efficacy of activism for many participants (Political Studies, 2019, with Elizabeth Morrow).

Healthcare policy and ethics

John has also researched the political, organisational and ethical challenges of the British National Health Service that provides universal healthcare free at the point of delivery funded from general taxation.

He has analysed the NHS through the lens of the Socialist-Calculation Debate (Journal of Medicine and Philosophy, 2003; HEC Forum, 2005), used public choice theory to examine the interest group dynamics therein (Journal of Medicine and Philosophy, 2008), and employed normative analysis to interrogate the ethics of single-tier healthcare provision like the NHS (Journal of Medicine and Philosophy, 2015).

The Liberal Democrats in local government

John’s PhD was an empirical study of the Liberal Democrats in UK local government combining quantitative and qualitative methods. Two published articles drawn from this study analysed how the Lib Dems recruited local councillors given the high costs and often small benefits of service as a local authority member (Local Government Studies, 2001), and evaluated the impact of the party’s strategy of community politics (Local Government Studies, 2001).