Determining the classics in social choice

Determination of classic papers and books in any field is of interest and importance to scholars and others interested in the subject areas. Since social/public choice is such a rapidly growing field of increasing importance it seems particularly relevant that we pay tribute to the founders. One means of doing this is to analyze citations to their most important works. This process allows us to simultaneously observe the depth and breadth to which the seminal ideas in the sub-discipline have penetrated the world of social science scholarship. My methodology produces somewhat different results than those reported in the 1981 Public Choice paper by Downing and Stafford. This is not to say that their method is inferior, but that different methods produce differing results which provide readers with a wider range of information about important works in social choice.This paper was considerably improved by comments from Jay Shogren.