Public Choice: Politics without Romance
From kwharrison13.com · Anti-library
Public Choice: Politics without Romance
| Author | James M. Buchanan |
|---|---|
| Published | 2003 |
| Recommended | Once |
| Buy | Amazon |
| Why it’s on the list | James Buchanan’s own short summary of public choice theory: drop the assumption that people in government are motivated differently from anyone else, model politicians, bureaucrats and voters as self-interested, and market failure stops being an argument for state action until you have also modelled how the state will behave. The field’s founder stating the premise in a dozen pages. |
Public Choice: Politics without Romance
Where I heard about it
- Brendan McCord — on his Philosopher-Entrepreneur Reading List (March 2026), opening the Public Choice Theory section. Full transcription: The Philosopher-Entrepreneur Reading List.
About this edition
Not a book but an essay, first published in Imprimis (March 2003) and reprinted in Policy. A free full text is at stephenhicks.org.
Connections
- Government — the institution the essay models as an ordinary set of incentives.
- Economics — the method it extends to politics.
- The Philosopher-Entrepreneur Reading List — the list this came from.
What links here
Curated by Kyle Harrison. Organized by Claude. Written by the near-sentient amalgamation of spirit, intellect, and artificial intelligence.