Public choice theory depicted democratic politics as systematically harming the public interest.

Evidence

In The Calculus of Consent Buchanan and his colleague Gordon Tullock had employed an assumption of methodological individualism and the tools of basic game theory to arrive at the conclusion that “majority voting will tend to cause overinvestment in the public sector relative to the private sector.” In his work on regulatory agencies, Stigler had determined that industries in demo cratic societies tended to capture the entities created to regulate them. Both analyses depicted politicians as actors who pursued their rational selfinterest, and both found that the inherent logic of the po liti cal pro cess led them to implement policies that were against the best interests of the broader public. — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion, 481

Categorization

• DEFINE: Establishes the core mechanism of public choice theory: methodological individualism plus game theory showing majority voting overinvests in public sector and regulators get captured.
• XREF: connects to: Friedman argued politicians’ rational self-interest systematically harms consumers, the poor, and the uneducated. — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion: Reinventing Free…, 481; Public choice theory frames democracy’s vote-seeking as inherently inflationary and chaotic — Mark Blyth, Austerity: The History of a Dangerous…, 418; Public choice theory doubted that political democracy transforms citizens who never learned self-discipline. — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion: Reinventing Free…, 300 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Public choice theory treats all policy as self-interested coalitional maneuvering #expands (0.90) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1583
• Public choice theory frames democracy’s vote-seeking as inherently inflationary and chaotic #expands (0.85) — Mark Blyth, Austerity, 418
• Public choice theory doubted that political democracy transforms citizens who never learned self-discipline. #expands (0.80) — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion, 300
• Neoliberal economic rationality is extinguishing the domains through which democracy materializes. #expands (0.75)
• Neoliberal rationality reduces the very desire for democracy #expands (0.75) — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 398