( classical liberalism of public governance )

The confusion between classical liberal doctrine and the laissez-

faire perspective is a common one. The laissez-faire perspective
seeks to minimize the role of government and promote free
markets, while classical liberal doctrine emphasizes the
importance of individual liberty and limited government
intervention in economic affairs.

However, this confusion overlooks the work of influential

classical liberal thinkers such as Friedrich Hayek and James
Buchanan. These scholars were not simply proponents of laissez-
faire economics, but instead spent a significant portion of their
lives studying economic and political institutional arrangements
and selection processes.

Hayek, for example, believed that a society's economic and

political institutions were shaped by a process of evolutionary
selection, rather than being designed by central planners.
Buchanan, on the other hand, emphasized the importance of
rules and constitutional constraints in shaping institutional
arrangements.

Both scholars believed that social institutions play a crucial role

in creating a prosperous and free society. They argued that a
society's institutions should be designed to promote individual
freedom, protect property rights, and encourage voluntary
exchange.

Therefore, it is important to recognize the nuanced differences

between classical liberal doctrine and the laissez-faire
perspective. This recognition allows us to appreciate the rich
intellectual tradition of classical liberalism and the important
contributions of scholars like Hayek and Buchanan to our
understanding of economic and political systems.
Buchanan and Hayek believed that markets and governments
should coexist in a balanced manner, without one having
institutional superiority over the other. They believed that
markets were important for the allocation of resources and the
creation of wealth, while governments were necessary to
provide public goods and regulate market failures.

Furthermore, classical liberal researchers did not fully conclude

their analysis using market-state dualism, as they recognized
that the boundaries between markets in the actual world are
ambiguous and frequently intersect. Additionally, the concept of
market-state dualism overlooks the "third sector," namely civil
society, which requires thorough examination. Moreover, a
comparison with alternative analytical frameworks is necessary
to provide a comprehensive understanding of the dynamics at
play.

The works of Hayek, Buchanan, and other classical liberals are

frequently overlooked or misunderstood, resulting in the
classical liberal perspective on public administration being left
unexplained and unexamined in their book "Public Governance
and the Classical Liberal Perspective, Paul Dragos, Peter J. Buttke,
and Vladtarko aim to bridge the literature gap by combining the
writings of Hayek and Buchanan to represent the development
of public governance theory from a classical standpoint, divided
into three sections:
Part 1 : The initial section intends to introduce the fundamental
elements of public governance encompassing classical liberalism:
the governance theory, the applied governance theory, and the
institutional design principles.

These essential elements establish the groundwork for the final

two sections.
The first building block of the "theory of governance" consists of:
comparative institutional analysis and skepticism of aggregate
social functions and normative individualism.
In normative individualism, there is a focus on the individual as
the primary unit, and a critical examination of how social
aggregate functions work. This perspective challenges the idea of
aggregating individual preferences in democratic procedures, as
famously questioned by the non-liberal economist Kenneth
Arrow. Arrow's "theory of impossibility" highlighted the inability
to collectively aggregate individual preferences, leading to the
conclusion that individual preferences should be the central
focus. Normative individualism, in conjunction with public choice
theory's emphasis on "symmetry behaviorist," introduces the
concept of comparative institutional analysis, which examines
institutional arrangements such as markets, governments, and
civil society, and their ability to meet diverse goals for all
individuals.