Virginia School of Political Economy I: An Introduction to Public Choice

Over the next few months, Hayek Program Senior Fellow Jayme Lemke will be sharing a series of conversations with her colleagues about the core ideas and methods that drive the research of the Hayek Program. For the second part of this series, Lemke interviews Senior Fellow Donald Boudreaux on one of these core approaches: the Virginia School of Political Economy.
In this discussion, Lemke and Boudreaux discuss the core insights of public choice economics.
To download the full audio of this interview, visit / hayekprogrampodcast
Learn more about the F. A. Hayek Program for Advanced Study in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at ppe.mercatus.org.
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[@joaquiny.9184]

A year ago I discovered the public choice school, it reflected all the ideas I had about governments and politicians. Currently, I am immersing myself in the literature that the school has given us and I am increasingly convinced to try to apply it in my field of International Relations. I have no doubt about the benefits of these ideas.

[@congressionalresearchinsti3897]

Logrolling (the central tenet of Public Choice) doesn't just allow for trading of votes it allows for buying and intimidating votes, thus increasing the power of the most powerful. Since 1970 when the Legislative Reorganization Act opened all the committee votes of Congress, this is precisely what has happened. Massive rise in inequality, chaos, mistrust of government, spending, debt, capture, etc.

[@nicholasbaum8776]

You're insinuating that the rise of everything bad in government is simply monocausal, the trade of votes, without failing to take into account the growth of certain ideologies, institutions, expansion of the executive branch, and so forth since the 1970's. Logrolling allows a Pareto optimal condition to be found in the legislature that enables a successful vote on the most important issues, measured by utility functions.

[@bkrharold]

I am just learning about Public Choice theory, and the two competing schools of thought, Chicago and the Virginia model, which is the subject of this video. We are now over 40 years into the neoliberal social economic experiment, and the results clearly prove it is an utter failure objectively, and in it's own terms. We now have a political party which was supposedly following the classical neoliberal model, that is now corrupt to the very core, and is threatening our political and economic stability. The verdict is in. These neoliberal economic policies can only benefit the rich and powerful, not because they are inherently wrong, but due to the way they are being implemented by flawed people. Jayme Lemke makes this point. You cannot ignore the corrupt incentives which influence policy making. People are not machines and they can never be relied upon to always make the best decision for the greater good, rather than for their own narrow interests.

[@rodrigohernandezmijares9976]

Sorry Mister. ¨Neoliberalism¨ is just a ghost. It does not exist. Many other flaws to point out, but I´ll just pinpoint this contradiction: ¨classical neoliberal model¨. Sorry, is it classical or is it new? Make up your mind.

[@Zeupater]

@Rodrigo Hernández Mijares It’s current thought and implementation of classical ideas. It’s not unlike modern classical music being composed and performed. It’s not unlike Latin words and concepts being used in modern legal, scientific or philosophical discussion.

[@cemvural7245]

Austrian school of political economy pls

[@admiralmachine]

It's "merˈkaː.tus", not "mer'Key:.tus".

[@xxcrysad3000xx]

Don looks like he's lost about 25 lbs.

[@kengreen7219]

How much geld do your buyers have to leave on the pillow Don?

[@qwikvr6gti]

In 1965 Buchanan launched a center dedicated to Weaponizing his theories at the University of Virginia, which later relocated to George Mason University. He trained thinkers to push back against the Brown v. Board of Education decision to desegregate America’s public schools and to challenge the constitutional perspectives and federal policy that enabled it. He used economic and political precepts, rather than overtly racial arguments, to make his case, which nonetheless gave cover to racists who knew that spelling out their prejudices would alienate the country.

[@Sergio4Economics]

Where are the sources for your claims? And don't tell me you read that in Democracy In Chains, since that work has often been criticised for its poor scholarship and intellectual dishonesty.

[@qwikvr6gti]

@@Sergio4Economics Did you know you're Mexican? You have also been disenfranchised by the colonization.

[@Sergio4Economics]

@@qwikvr6gti I was expecting that you would back your bold assertions about Buchanan with serious evidence. What a dissapointment.

[@Briansongman]

He’s lost in the 50s...the 1850s