Public Choice as User Guide

Machiavelli's analysis was both positive and prescriptive: how ought the prince maintain and extend his power? Public Choice has sometimes been accused of being a handbook for would-be despots.

Now, Bueno de Mesquita (HT: @Isegoria) has produced a book that leans more closely to this kind of users-guide: The Dictator's Handbook: Why Bad Behaviour is Almost Always Good Politics. This one's going to the top of my Amazon queue. In the meantime, here's Moynihan's review.

There would probably be a market for an intelligent-layman treatment of all the public choice results on voting and elections written as a guide for candidates and junior politicians.

Which came first, the marketing or the policy?

I'm a huge fan of Yes Minister. "Hollowmen" seems to be the Australian equivalent set where the bureaucracy sees its job as keeping the Government in office rather than as keeping the Government from messing around with its prerogative. Kinda like Canada under the Chretien Liberals. Commenter "V" pointed to this particular bit of awesomeness, for which I thank V.



I'm going to have to buy the series. If this clip is representative, it's wonderful. All the stuff I recommend as what not to do in honest cost-benefit analysis taken as recommendation as to how to sell a policy.