Nation-Specific Traditions
The importance of the historical, institutional and political background of nationspecific traditions in public economics has been repeatedly pointed out, for example, by von Stein (1875: 25-8), Creedy (1984: 89) and Kolm (2010: 689).
The book by Musgrave and Peacock (1958) contains classic writings documenting the diversity of nationspecific traditions. Musgrave (1996-97) provides a systematic comparison between the British tradition of public finance and the German Finanzwissenschaft, focusing on the comparative achievements as well as the different ideological environments of the two. Musgrave’s (1987) Palgrave entry on “Public finance” and Kolm’s (1987) entry on “Public economics” provide systematic accounts of the subject in historical perspective, both paying due attention to national traditions. Faccarrello and Sturn (2010) suggest that nation-specific traditions are not only a convenient expository device for presenting a vast range of material: their specific importance is closely related to what Kolm called the paradoxical character of public economics.