ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the public choice approach to understanding government policies. This approach starts with the economic assumption that scarcity, tradeoffs, and rational, self-interested behavior govern not only private economic activity but also political behavior. That is, the behavior of voters, interest groups, politicians, and agency administrators. Interactions among political actors result in supply of and demand for policies. On the demand side, interest groups play a central role in determining the demand for policy, and much of the analysis of policy demand is about the factors that make interest groups more and less effective in pushing for their favored policies. On the supply side, the discussion focuses on three important aspects of legislatures: vote-trading (logrolling) among legislators to support each other’s policies, the importance of committees in influencing which bills get enacted into law, and congressional oversight of agencies charged with implementing policy.
