Chris Fleming

I finally read Daniel Kuehn’s paper on Robert Singleton, James Buchanan, and Angela Davis at UCLA. There’s genuinely important archival work here. But I think Kuehn’s evidence is considerably stronger than the interpretation he builds on top of it. 1/

Otherwise there is an important asymmetry: Singleton’s experiences explain his politics, but Buchanan’s experiences merely provide the scenery against which his politics are judged. That isn’t enough if the goal is to understand Buchanan’s constitutionalism rather than prosecute Buchanan. 30/

I finally read Daniel Kuehn’s paper on Robert Singleton, James Buchanan, and Angela Davis at UCLA. There’s genuinely important archival work here. But I think Kuehn’s evidence is considerably stronger than the interpretation he builds on top of it. 1/

That does NOT excuse Buchanan as contextualization is not exculpation. The question is what those experiences did to his understanding of const. order. Did Buchanan believe institutional protections were being exploited by actors trying to destroy the institution sustaining those protections? 28/

I finally read Daniel Kuehn’s paper on Robert Singleton, James Buchanan, and Angela Davis at UCLA. There’s genuinely important archival work here. But I think Kuehn’s evidence is considerably stronger than the interpretation he builds on top of it. 1/

I think context may be a big missing piece to Kuehn's story. He gives us a serious reconstruction of why Singleton became Singleton: Singleton’s experience of segregation, the Freedom Rides, jail in Mississippi, and civil-rights activism help explain how he understood the Davis controversy. 26/

I finally read Daniel Kuehn’s paper on Robert Singleton, James Buchanan, and Angela Davis at UCLA. There’s genuinely important archival work here. But I think Kuehn’s evidence is considerably stronger than the interpretation he builds on top of it. 1/

That leads to what I think Kuehn may have discovered: Perhaps Buchanan’s const. liberalism is much less liberal once actors inside an institution are using its rules to threaten the order itself. Then he is receptive to political control, selective punishment, taxpayer sovereignty, and hierarchy 24/

I finally read Daniel Kuehn’s paper on Robert Singleton, James Buchanan, and Angela Davis at UCLA. There’s genuinely important archival work here. But I think Kuehn’s evidence is considerably stronger than the interpretation he builds on top of it. 1/

But I think they create a different and potentially much stronger internal critique. Buchanan's constitutionalism is supposed to get us away from choosing rules based on whether they help our friends and hurt our enemies in the immediate dispute. Yet Buchanan’s letters are the opposite. 22/

I finally read Daniel Kuehn’s paper on Robert Singleton, James Buchanan, and Angela Davis at UCLA. There’s genuinely important archival work here. But I think Kuehn’s evidence is considerably stronger than the interpretation he builds on top of it. 1/

Kuehn then notes that “taxpayer citizenship” has historically been racialized and quotes racist/reactionary hate mail to Davis signed by “taxpayers.” But what does that establish about Buchanan’s argument? Without another evidentiary link, very little imo. 20/

I finally read Daniel Kuehn’s paper on Robert Singleton, James Buchanan, and Angela Davis at UCLA. There’s genuinely important archival work here. But I think Kuehn’s evidence is considerably stronger than the interpretation he builds on top of it. 1/

And the contrast between Singleton being denied access to the Regents and Buchanan receiving friendly responses is interesting but weak as evidence of racism. Buchanan was a famous senior economist with elite connections. Singleton was a much younger scholar still completing his doctorate. 18/

I finally read Daniel Kuehn’s paper on Robert Singleton, James Buchanan, and Angela Davis at UCLA. There’s genuinely important archival work here. But I think Kuehn’s evidence is considerably stronger than the interpretation he builds on top of it. 1/

Similarly, saying Davis’s lectures “definitively proved her brilliance” is advocacy language. There is evidence she was an exceptionally popular and impressive lecturer. Say that. A historian shouldn’t turn favorable evidence into metaphysical certainty because the subject is sympathetic. 16/

I finally read Daniel Kuehn’s paper on Robert Singleton, James Buchanan, and Angela Davis at UCLA. There’s genuinely important archival work here. But I think Kuehn’s evidence is considerably stronger than the interpretation he builds on top of it. 1/

Those cases cannot simply be treated as constitutionally identical. 14/

I finally read Daniel Kuehn’s paper on Robert Singleton, James Buchanan, and Angela Davis at UCLA. There’s genuinely important archival work here. But I think Kuehn’s evidence is considerably stronger than the interpretation he builds on top of it. 1/

There, the courts actually held that the Regents could not constitutionally do what they were trying to do. And Buchanan later said Davis should have been fired. That creates a much sharper problem for Buchanan. 12/

I finally read Daniel Kuehn’s paper on Robert Singleton, James Buchanan, and Angela Davis at UCLA. There’s genuinely important archival work here. But I think Kuehn’s evidence is considerably stronger than the interpretation he builds on top of it. 1/

The missing institutional question is crucial: What powers did the Regents legally possess? Could they remove Young? Hitch? Change appointment procedures? Reduce funding? Alter university governance prospectively? 10/

I finally read Daniel Kuehn’s paper on Robert Singleton, James Buchanan, and Angela Davis at UCLA. There’s genuinely important archival work here. But I think Kuehn’s evidence is considerably stronger than the interpretation he builds on top of it. 1/

You can think their preferred constitution was awful, but that's not the same as showing it was nonconstitutional. There is a similar problem with “discretion.” Buchanan argues for less discretionary political power, not literally zero discretion. 8/

I finally read Daniel Kuehn’s paper on Robert Singleton, James Buchanan, and Angela Davis at UCLA. There’s genuinely important archival work here. But I think Kuehn’s evidence is considerably stronger than the interpretation he builds on top of it. 1/

Constitutionalism is not the proposition that whatever rules currently exist should remain unchanged. Buchanan’s constitutional project is about evaluating and choosing rules. A constitutional economist can believe the existing constitution of an institution is terrible and advocate changing it 6/

I finally read Daniel Kuehn’s paper on Robert Singleton, James Buchanan, and Angela Davis at UCLA. There’s genuinely important archival work here. But I think Kuehn’s evidence is considerably stronger than the interpretation he builds on top of it. 1/

So “there’s nothing here” is not a serious response to Kuehn. There is something here. My disagreement is over what exactly Kuehn has shown about Buchanan’s constitutional political economy. 4/

I finally read Daniel Kuehn’s paper on Robert Singleton, James Buchanan, and Angela Davis at UCLA. There’s genuinely important archival work here. But I think Kuehn’s evidence is considerably stronger than the interpretation he builds on top of it. 1/

First, the part Buchanan defenders shouldn’t try to explain away: Buchanan comes out of the episode looking bad. After the Marin County courthouse attack, he appears to have simply assumed Davis’s guilt and immediately tried to use the crisis against her institutional defenders. 2/

GK was historically the position that ran on general athletic tools and also the one soccer position that crossed American sports. The American GK frequently was a converted multi-sport athlete like Howard. So we had exactly one world-class position and it was the one that needed the base least. 1/

Over the last fifteen years elite GL was redefined around the ball-playing sweeper. Neuer first and then the Ederson and Alisson model under the play-out-from-the-back orthodoxy. That is precisely the soccer-specific technical skill the US base does not produce. 2/