Public Choice

Cross-discipline of economics and political science which models political decisions as strategic actions to maximize individual utility. This school of thought was formalized by James M. Buchanan, Jr. and Gordon Tullock, and is closely related to the Law and Economics school.

According to Public Choice theory:

• Interest groups--with high value, concentrated interests--will use the political process to receive benefits at the expense of the greater public with more diffuse interests.
• Politicians are not working to serve the general public, except insofar as doing so maximizes the politicians' personal utility. Often, this is modeled as maximizing their chance of reelection.
• Likewise with bureaucrats. They are often modeled as maximizing personal (or organizational) power, through larger staffs and budgets. This sometimes leads to regulatory capture.
• Businesses will use the political process to engage in rent seeking, receiving government-granted monopoly power.

Public Choice is a big deal at George Mason University.

Public Choice should not be confused with Social Choice, a completely different cross-discipline of economics and political science.