In Government: Whose Obedient Servant?, three economists provide an account of the theory of public choice and its applications without the technical jargon which makes it difficult for newcomers to appreciate the importance of this branch of economics.

The authors are three leading exponents. Professor Gordon Tullock is one of the founding fathers of public choice theory and has been responsible for many of the most imaginative ideas and the most significant advances in the subject. Dr Arthur Seldon, for many years the editorial director of the IEA, was one of the first to recognise the importance of public choice and has been a principal contributor to the development of the subject in Britain. Dr Gordon Brady has written extensively about ways in which public choice threory can be applied to some fo the most pressing issues of our time.

Sir Antony Jay, joint author of Yes, Minister and Yes, Prime Minister contributes a Foreword in which he explains how his experiences led him, by a different route, to the same conlusions as those of this ‘admirable book’.

2000, Readings 51, ISBN 978 0 255 36482 9, 200pp, HC