Public choice theory mirrors left critique of media as resistance theory

Evidence

Finally, it should be noted that in the view of many neoliberals, not only do we not yet have a free market, but what we have in its place (and what is sometimes otherwise defended as a “free market” against the Soviet Union) — namely, a mutual compromise and buying off of pressure groups, special interests, and the like — is in itself, according to the New Right, a structure absolutely inimical to the real free market and its establishment. This kind of analysis (sometimes called public choice theory) is the right-wing equivalent of the left analysis of the media and consumerism (in other words, the obligatory theory of resistance, the account of what in the public area and the public sphere generally prevents people from adopting a better system and impedes their very understanding and reception of such a system). — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 586

Categorization

• DEFINE: Frames public choice theory as the right’s mirror-image of left media critique — a useful structural definition of a term often cited loosely.
• XREF: connects to: Public choice theory treats all policy as self-interested coalitional maneuvering — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 1583