Professor Congleton joined the department of economics at George Mason University and the Center for Study of Public Choice in 1988, after being a visiting fellow at the Center in 1986. During his tenure at GMU, he has also served as visiting Professor of Economics at the Stockholm School of Economics and at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, and also been a visiting fellow at the Australian National University and Studieförbundet Näringsliv och Samhälle (SNS) in Stockholm.

Professor Congleton has taught a variety of courses at GMU, including mathematical economics, public choice, public finance, and environmental economics. (Class materials for several of these courses can be found on his website.) His research explores the influence that formal and informal institutions have on competitive processes, and the extent to which the resulting conflict generates avoidable dead weight losses. That line of research has analyzed the affects of formal and informal political constitutions on public policy formation, the affects of institutions on interest group activities within rent-seeking societies, the impact of terrorism, and the evolution of norms for participating in joint enterprises. A second line of empirical research has analyzed the politics of national and international environmental policy formation. That research demonstrates that both democratic political institutions and interest group activities affect the both domestic environmental regulations and international environmental treaties. These two research programs have lead to the publication of several dozen articles in academic journals and a series of books on rent seeking, the politics of environmental protection and constitutional design. A complete list can be found on Professor Congleton's website.)

Current research focuses on the manner in which political institutions and private norms affect politics, public policies, and performance. Politics by Principle, Not Interest: Towards Nondiscriminatory Democracy (with James M. Buchanan, Cambridge University Press, 1998) demonstrates that democratic governments will operate more efficiently if they are constrained by a generality principle. Toward Improving Democracy: Public Choice and Swedish Constitutional History (Kluwer Academic Press, forthcoming 2003) demonstrates that major constitutional reforms have had major impacts on Sweden's politics and the effectiveness of its public policies.

Professor Congleton is currently working on several projects including a book, tentatively titled Perfecting Parliament, From Dictatorship to Democracy without Revolution.

Dr. Congleton's working papers