Mercatus Center

Institute for Humane Studies

Arlington Campus, George Mason University

Arlington, VA 22201

To Professor James M. Buchanan,

From all of us with the Mercatus Center and the Institute for Humane Studies, happy 80^th birthday!

We want to express our thanks to you, for your legacy has touched our organizations with particular impact.

Each of us is motivated by the idea of liberty and what it means to live in a free society. We’re fascinated by the linkage between the well-being of society and individual freedom. We are excited by opportunities to know more about the spontaneous ordering within markets, the constitutional framework that defines that order, the way societies change that framework, and the impact this has on the relationship between individuals and their governments.

Your work in all these areas has enhanced our understanding and broadened our knowledge of how we think and act about society, economics and politics. Your presence helps these ideas percolate at George Mason University. You enhance the culture of inquiry where vibrant frameworks of analysis – public choice, constitutional political economy, Austrian economics, and law and economics – thrive.

In a sense, you represent why we are here. You help create an environment of genuine intellectual stimulation, and it is one in which we choose to live and work.

So, from all of us – thank you.

Sincerely,

Mercatus Center

Institute for Humane Studies