Advanced Introduction to Public Choice

Randall G. Holcombe

• Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN:
  9781785362040
• eBook ISBN:
  9781785362057
• Topic: Economics
• Subtopic: Economic Theory
• Index: Economics

Elgar Advanced Introductions are stimulating and thoughtful introductions to major fields in the social sciences, business and law, expertly written by the world's leading scholars. Designed to be accessible yet rigorous, they offer concise and lucid surveys of the substantive and policy issues associated with discrete subject areas.ThisAdvanced Introductionpresents a focused narrative about political decision-making ba sed on the work that has defined public choice as a discipline. Randall G.Holcombeemphasizes the theoretical foundations of public choice, examining the way that voter preferences are aggregated through democratic decision-making, the way that political exchange leads to the production of public policy, and the way that the constitutional framework within which political activity takes place is designed. He provides a concise discussion of the main models of public choice in an engaging manner, giving readers a foundation for understanding the theoretical and empirical work in the field. Each chapter ends with a notes section that discusses the research on which the chapter is based, with an emphasis on the pioneering work that has shaped the development of public choice.Undergraduate and graduate students in economics, political science and public administration will find this introduction to be an essential resource for understanding political decision making. Instructors in those fields will find this book to be a useful and affordable text and an indispensable resource for teaching public choice.

Table of contents

• Front Matter
• Copyright
• Contents
• Preface
• PART I: INTRODUCTION
• 1 Public choice and public policy
• PART II: AGGREGATING VOTER PREFERENCES
• 2 The politics of left and right
• 3 Institutions: proportional versus plurality; parliamentary versus presidential
• 4 Political strategy: turnout and the distribution of preferences
• 5 Multidimensional issue space
• 6 Why do people vote? Rational ignorance, expressive voting, rational irrationality
• PART III: DESIGNING PUBLIC POLICY
• 7 Transaction costs and political exchange
• 8 Political markets: interest groups, rent-seeking, and regulatory capture
• 9 Bureaucracy
• 10 Political organization: districts, committees, and institutional design
• 11 Political entrepreneurship
• PART IV: CONSTITUTIONAL DESIGN
• 12 Constitutional and post-constitutional decision-making
• 13 Interest groups and constitutionalevolution
• 14 Checks and balances: elites and masses
• Index