"Public choice, or public choice theory, is 'the use of economic tools to deal with traditional problems of political science'. Its content includes the study of political behavior."
This theory applies economic principles to the analysis of decision-making in the public sector, and suggests that individuals act in their own self-interest.
Rational Choice Theory: The underlying framework of public choice theory, which assumes individuals act in their own self-interest and make rational decisions to maximize their utility.
Collective Action Problems: Situations where individuals have incentives to free-ride on the efforts of others, creating situations where public goods are underprovided.
Rent-Seeking Behavior: The use of resources to gain economic or political benefits from the government, which can lead to the inefficient allocation of resources.
Bureaucracy: The organizational structure of government agencies and the incentives that drive bureaucratic behavior.
Interest Groups: Groups that seek to influence government policy in their favor, often through lobbying or direct political action.
Voting Behavior: The factors that determine how individuals vote in elections and how politicians respond to voter preferences.
Public Choice Applications: Applications of public choice theory to specific policy areas, such as environmental policy, healthcare, and education.
Public Choice Critiques: Criticisms of public choice theory, including its assumptions about individual behavior and its implications for democratic governance.
Public Choice History: The origins and development of public choice theory as a field of study.
Comparative Institutional Analysis: The analysis of different institutional arrangements that affect political decision making, such as different electoral systems or the division of powers between branches of government.
Rational Choice Theory: This theory assumes that individuals are rational decision-makers who base their choices on self-interest and utility. It analyzes how people make decisions and consider trade-offs in various policy settings.
Bureaucratic Theory: This theory focuses on the role of bureaucracy in public administration. It examines the structures, processes, and procedures of the bureaucratic organizations and how they operate in delivering public services.
Institutional Theory: This theory looks at the role of institutions and their impact on public administration. It analyzes how institutions and the rules they create shape decision-making and behavior of public officials.
Collective Action Theory: This theory explores how groups work together to achieve common goals, particularly in the context of public policy. It examines how groups interact with government agencies and other stakeholders to influence policy outcomes.
Public Choice Theory of Politics: This theory analyzes how political decisions are made and how they affect public policy. It examines the motivations and incentives of elected officials and how they respond to pressures from the public and interest groups.
Game theory: Game theory is another branch of public choice theory that examines strategic interactions among individuals and organizations. It investigates how people make decisions in the context of multiple players and uncertain outcomes.
"It is the subset of positive political theory that studies self-interested agents (voters, politicians, bureaucrats) and their interactions."
"...which can be represented in a number of ways – using (for example) standard constrained utility maximization, game theory, or decision theory."
"Economist James M. Buchanan received the 1986 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences 'for his development of the contractual and constitutional bases for the theory of economic and political decision-making' in this space."
"In popular use, 'public choice' is often used as a shorthand for components of modern public choice theory that focus on how elected officials, bureaucrats and other government agents can be influenced by their own perceived self-interest when making decisions in their official roles."
"Public choice theory is also closely related to social choice theory, a mathematical approach to the aggregation of individual interests, welfare, or votes."
"Public choice analysis has roots in positive analysis ('what is') but is often used for normative purposes ('what ought to be') in order to identify a problem or to suggest improvements to constitutional rules."
"Rather, decisions are made by the combined choices of the individuals."
"The second is the use of markets in the political system, which was argued to be a return to true economics."
"The final is the self-interested nature of all individuals within the political system."
"As Buchanan and Tullock argued, 'the ultimate defense of the economic-individualist behavioral assumption must be empirical...The only final test of a model lies in its ability to assist in understanding real phenomena'."