ABSTRACT
The political marketplace is where public policy decisions are made. These decisions provide the framework within which individual businesses operate and determine in what activities government should or should not engage. Government protects the liberty of its citizens, sets the rules of the game that businesses must follow, and operates a system of economic institutions, such as private property. It is also generally agreed that so-called public goods and services-such as police protection and national security, city streets, roads, and other facilities that can’t be sold as individual units-should be provided by government.1
