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so broad coalitions are forced to favor the public interest, while narrow coalitions can afford to serve only their sponsors and ignore the public interest -- v
by olifante 15y ago
so broad coalitions are forced to favor the public interest, while narrow coalitions can afford to serve only their sponsors and ignore the public interest -- very interesting thesis.
Do you have any links to more detailed discussions of this theory?
- pradocchia 15y agoI got the kernel of the idea from Bruce Bueno de Mesquita, in this podcast: http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2007/02/bruce_bueno_de.html http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2007/02/bruce_bueno_de.html I'm sure you can find more material on the subject from there. Since I heard this, I have found it very profitable to think of public policy in terms of coalitions. Interestingly, one of Madison's arguments in favor of union at the Constitutional Convention was what that a United States would create broader coalitions, and thus a more stable government. This was to head off arguments at the time that republics had always been geographically limited, and any large state necessarily tended towards empire. (My source for that is Joseph Ellis, btw.)