Political Property Rights and Entangled Political Economy

Abstract

I contribute to the theory of entangled political economy by showing how entanglement can be characterized in terms of political property rights. A political property right grants its holder a share of decision-making power in a specific context, as well as specifies to whom the costs and benefits from those decisions accrue. Because entangled political economy focuses on the complex relationships that exist between market and political enterprises, theorizing about these relationships as exchanges of political property rights can give us meaningful information about what entanglement is, when it exists, and how it can be expected to develop. I briefly survey the theory of political property rights, show how political property rights within a broader entanglement perspective helps understand constitutions, and discuss several applications of political property rights that can advance entangled political economy scholarship.

Keywords: constitutional political economy, entangled political economy, political property rights, public choice

JEL Classification: H11, P14, P16