POLS 104 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Santa Barbara City College, Public Choice, Homo Economicus
Document Summary
Public choice uses economic tools of analysis to model political behavior. Basic claims: very important to popular theory. Politicians act mainly out of self-interest and are wealth maximizers. Means they think rationally but are out of the loop for most dealings. Good policy is an underprovided public good. Note: the theory only matters when politician"s self interests conflict with public. Types of wealth: reelections, and financial gain. General theory: the incentives for protecting the public interest are weak, while the incentives for interest groups are strong therefore politicians act in favor of the interest group. There is no incentive for the voter to monitor the government closely. Since each person only has one vote, they don"t have much say in elections or, therefore, policy. It is entirely rational then, for the populace to remain ignorant it simply is not worth their time and effort. Claims that this is difference between political and private markets in private.
