The Vote Motive
25 August 1976
SUGGESTED
Monetary Policy
No government has maintained the value of its currency without external discipline
10 July 1976
Monetary Policy
Trade, Development, and Immigration
4 November 2024
Classic introduction to public choice theory by one of the pioneers in the field
The economics of politics applies the techniques of economic analysis (monopoly, competition, information costs, etc.) to political and bureaucratic behaviour.
It drops the conventional assumption that politicians and bureaucrats try to serve only ‘the public interest’ and more realistically assumes that, as elsewhere, they try to serve their own interests by, for example, seeking re-election and empire-building. The vote motive in politics is the profit motive in industry.
The new economic theory has, since 1960, been revealing the strengths and ‘imperfections’ of government as established economic theory since 1776 has revealed the strengths and ‘imperfections’ of the market. It thus provides a rational explanation for economically irrational policies such as on Concorde, devolution, commuter fares, agricultural subsidies, regional employment and the siting of nationalised undertakings.
Hobart Paperback 9
It drops the conventional assumption that politicians and bureaucrats try to serve only ‘the public interest’ and more realistically assumes that, as elsewhere, they try to serve their own interests by, for example, seeking re-election and empire-building. The vote motive in politics is the profit motive in industry.
The new economic theory has, since 1960, been revealing the strengths and ‘imperfections’ of government as established economic theory since 1776 has revealed the strengths and ‘imperfections’ of the market. It thus provides a rational explanation for economically irrational policies such as on Concorde, devolution, commuter fares, agricultural subsidies, regional employment and the siting of nationalised undertakings.
Hobart Paperback 9
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