Many people choose not to vote. Laws that benefit only limited special interests are incredibly hard to kill. Government tends to grow, even when voters elect officials who promise fiscal restraint.
An economic theory dubbed “public choice” offers explanations for each of the facts described above. Dr. Roy Cordato, the John Locke Foundation’s vice president for research and resident scholar, highlighted key elements of public choice theory during a presentation Monday to the John Locke Foundation’s Shaftesbury Society.
In the video clip below, Cordato discusses an element of public choice theory dubbed the “shortsightedness effect.”
Click here to watch the full 49:10 presentation.