A monumental work that outlines the dynamics of individual choice as it is displayed in the process of public finance. Buchanan is perhaps nowhere more clearly a disciple of the great Swedish economist Knut Wicksell than he is in the underlying principles of this seminal work. Specifically, he elaborates on these three central Wicksellian themes: analysis of market failure in the provision of public goods; the insistence on conceiving policy decisions as the outcome of political processes; and, the necessity of treating the tax and expense sides of the budget as interconnected. Echoing Wicksell's antipathy to the 'benevolent despot' model of government, Buchanan lays out in this book a starting point for modern public-choice analysis. Recognising the path breaking work he is about to begin, Buchanan opens his preface by stating, "Fiscal theory is normally discussed in a frame of reference wholly different from that adopted in this book. This dramatic shift of emphasis...requires that I consider the processes through which individual choices are transmitted, combined, and transformed into collective outcomes. Careful research in this area is in its infancy, and the necessary reliance on crude, unsophisticated models underscores the exploratory nature of the work." According to Geoffrey Brennan in the foreword, "PUBLIC FINANCE IN DEMOCRATIC PROCESS is a work more hospitable to public finance orthodoxy and could be treated as an extension (albeit an important one) of the conventional approach."

詹姆斯·M·布坎南，理查德·A·马斯格雷夫，詹姆斯·M·布坎南，乔治梅森（Geirge Mason）大学教授和公共选择研究中心咨询主任，1986年度诺贝尔经济学奖获得者。理查德·A·马斯格雷夫，哈佛大学H H 博班克讲座政治经济学荣誉退休教授和加州大学桑塔克鲁兹分校聘任经济学教授。