This book evaluates the validity of a key proposition of public choice theory: that competition is associated with superior performance by governmental organisations. Three forms of competition in local government are identified: competition between local authorities, competition between councils and private contractors, and competition between parties for political power. The extent and consequences of competition are assessed in both the UK and USA. The analysis is used to draw conclusions on the effects of competition and the validity of public choice theory.

In Law and Public Choice, Daniel Farber and Philip Frickey present a remarkably rich and accessible introduction to the driving principles of public choice. In this, the first systematic look at the implications of social choice for legal doctrine, Farber and Frickey carefully review both the empirical and theoretical literature about interest group influence and provide a nonmathematical introduction to formal models of legislative action. Ideal for course use, this volume offers a balanced and perceptive analysis and critique of an approach which, within limits, can illuminate the dynamics of government decision-making. “Law and Public Choice is a most valuable contribution to the burgeoning literature. It should be of great interest to lawyers, political scientists, and all others interested in issues at the intersection of government and law.”—Cass R. Sunstein, University of Chicago Law School

This paper analyzes the lack of civic engagement in local government decision-making and the problems that result from it. I consider one explanation as viewed through public choice theory: dominant special interest groups capture local governments for their own private interests. Thus, average citizens are not only alienated from their local government, but they also find the barriers to entry into local politics too high for collective action and participation. While at first glance this account seems descriptively accurate, public choice theory has normative limitations in explaining local governments because it fails to recognize these features of the local politics process as problematic (much less to offer any solutions). Therefore, I argue that we ought to reject this model of local government in favor of a model based on civic republicanism, which does offer a solution to the problem of civic disengagement. Civic republicanism envisions local government substructures that provide meaningful opportunities for stakeholders to deliberate with one another regarding matters facing their community and correspondingly inform the local decision-making process. In this light, this Article explores whether neighborhood councils - new substructures of local government that aim to involve citizens in policy- and decision-making processes - can improve civic engagement.

The Next 25 Years of Public Choice brings together the perspectives of many of the world's leading scholars of public choice on the present state of knowledge and the likely future course of scholarship on public choice and constitutional economy. This book presents material in a manner accessible to a wide educated readership and will be influential in guiding future research in this important field. It is directed at professional scholars of public choice, economics and political science, government officials, graduate students and anyone seriously interested in public policy. A distinguished group of internationally well-known scholars offer their own often far-reaching views on strengths and weaknesses in the current literature and pinpoint important avenues of research amenable to future research.

A study of local government policy formulation, drawing on developments in economics - such as new institutional economics - and advances in the theories of social capital and leadership. The authors also examine rival minimalist and activist approaches to local government reform.

In this text the author presents a middle ground between those who champion public choice theory and those who disparage it. He argues that in many cases public choice theory's reach has exceeded its grasp and that in others public choice insights have not been pursued far enough.

Elections are the primary mechanism through which governments are decided. It is indeed, also one of the oldest practices of universal consent and what might be called as ‘multiple voices, one government’. Elections decide the destiny of a country, the government that the people choose; it is in its very essence, a characteristic activity that defines an identity of a nation. That can be thought of as quite obvious since the governments that people choose portray the type of society they live in and define further their dreams and aspirations. Elections in theory, is an activity that can be thought of as whirlwind of several mathematical and theoretical concepts. Several political scientists, mathematicians and philosophers have spoken too rightly about it and some have even gone steps further to devise equations and theorems that define what elections are comprised of.