Buckling of longitudinal reinforcement in reinforced concrete columns may occur in the region between two consecutive ties, or may involve a number of ties. The existing design code specifications do not provide an appropriate methodology for the design of the transversal reinforcement in different situations. The main objective of the present work is to develop a formulation to allow to analyze the buckling of longitudinal bars in reinforced concrete columns taking into account the tie spacing, the diameter and arrangement of the ties in the cross section and the longitudinal bar diameter. For this purpose an analytical method for the evaluation of the buckling load of longitudinal bars is described, as a function of the constraint imposed by the axial or flexural stiffness of the stirrups. The longitudinal bar is considered as a column deforming according to thin beam theory. The tie action is described either by a set discrete elastic supports or by a continuous elastic foundation. The theoretical analysis considers the column with one or more deformation modes, with some degree of nonlinearity, including the analysis of post-critical equilibrium paths. As a result of this study, rational criteria for spacing and sizing of transversal reinforcement are derived, allowing to study different alternatives in an abacus of simple use for design. Several comparisons with the results obtained experimentally by other authors in reinforced concrete columns are presented, allowing for an evaluation of the validity of the theoretical developments and the rational design methodology proposed herein.