Public Economy (Economics)

Recall cards on public choice: how voters, special interests, and democratic institutions shape economic policy. Voter participation: rational ignorance, U.S. versus international turnout, compulsory voting, the cost of election campaigns relative to GDP, and who is more likely to vote. Special interest politics: well-organized groups with concentrated benefits and diffuse costs, lobbying, pork-barrel spending, and logrolling. Flaws in majority rule: the voting cycle and agenda order, median voter theory and its limits, the absence of market discipline on government agencies, and weighing the strengths and weaknesses of markets against those of government.