Mike Munger
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EconTalk · Public Choice and Politics Without Romance (with Mike Munger)
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Why Does Liberalism Require Wielding Persuasion Instead of Power?
Liberalism is a constrained vision. One wants to do good things but must accept the fact that some good things will not be able to be done because the goal is to prevent bad things from being done in the future when power changes hands. Instead of wielding power one must wield persuasion and be humble and tolerant.
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Why Has Congress Passed So Few Laws?
The United States Congress has passed very little legislation in the last close to 10 years because the incentives that now face the United States Senate and the United States House are so pathological. Most of them if they were to take a principled position would lose the primary because the parties are so extreme. Voters have very little information. In primaries maybe 15 or 20 percent of the population turns out and the voters are the least informed and most ideological.
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Why Do Florida and South Dakota Keep Foreign Sugar Out?
Senators from Florida and South Dakota support sugar import restrictions because sugar cane and sugar beets grow in Florida and South Dakota. The people who grow sugar cane and sugar beets are really focused on keeping foreign sugar out. The average consumer pays ten, twenty-five, whatever it is, percent more for products that contain sugar. Sugar import restrictions enrich a very small group of people and impoverish a very large group of people a small amount.
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Why Does a United States Senator Fail to Do the Right Thing?
Competition disciplines corporations but re election disciplines US senators. There is no way in hell a senator gets to do the right thing because the senator lives in a world where political power is exercised by concentrated interests. Most people in the United States cannot name even one senator and the lack of information is rational.
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Why Does Public Choice Differ From the Street View of Politics?
Public choice and the street view of politics clash because the street view of politics tends to assume that people will rise above the incentives. The public choice view tends to say people are going to be enslaved by the incentives. The truth is in between.
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Why Does Methodological Individualism Assume the Locus of Choice Is the Individual?
Methodological individualism assumes the locus of choice and the locus of enjoyment or disappointment is the individual. People cannot say the government acts or the government thinks because the government is a collection of people who come up with some aggregate process. Methodological individualism means a group of individuals cannot be treated as an organism.
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Why Does Politics as Exchange Fail to Scale Beyond Small Groups?
Politics as exchange succeeds in small groups because participants like each other and share information about preferences and allergies while possessing incentives to accommodate others. Politics as exchange fails to scale because participants lack enough information along with incentives to be solicitous of others.
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Why Does Government Action Fail to Represent the Will of the People?
Government action is the outcome of a complex set of institutions and norms along with the incentives that the individuals inside face. There is no reason to think government action will reflect what people want because people almost always want different things.
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Why Does the Munger Test Replace the Word State With Donald Trump?
The Munger test shows how support for having the state decide what people can say on the internet disappears when Donald Trump replaces the word state because there is no such thing as the state. The people who run the state are the same people who run corporations. Public choice requires comparing a real market setting with a real government setting to avoid romance about perfect government incentives.
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Why Does Liberalism Require Tolerance and Humility?
Liberalism requires that people forbear from acting as if they know they are correct. One must believe one might be mistaken and therefore persuade others while listening because the other person might be right. Tolerance and humility serve as the two watchwords of liberalism.