There is no incentive for a politician to make good decisions for her constituents. The politician is incentivized to make decisions good for himself (of course

There is no incentive for a politician to make good decisions for her constituents. The politician is incentivized to make decisions good for himself (of course), his party or for his reelection. Re-election decisions are usually populist. Sometimes they are good for the people but most often they are harmful on the long run. Seldom you get a politician like Reagan or Thatcher who made unpopular decisions great for their country but they were so rare that they are statistically insignificant.