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Why are political campaigns based on dumbed-down slogans, instead of the rational deliberation our textbooks taught us was the basis of the system? Why is it that tiny minorities manage to get lucrative subsidies in a system supposedly based on the popular will? Why are voters uninformed — and why do they have an incentive to be? Public Choice economics can help us understand these phenomena better, and that’s our topic for today.

About the Guest

Ivan Pongracic is the William E. Hibbs/Ludwig von Mises Professor of Economics at Hillsdale College.

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Books Mentioned

The Calculus of Consent, by James Buchanan and Gordon Tullock

The Limits of Liberty, by James Buchanan and Gordon Tullock

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