As to my opinion, the answer to this question may differ depending on the country profile and the cultural structure of the public. 'Public choice', being not sure, is a terminology that usually represents the subjective and irrational choices of people whose attitudes are mostly modified by the political and pointless speeches of politicians. Most notably, it is pretty difficult for such illiterated people to change their idefixes after being exposed to these kind of messages mixed with religious and nationalist speeches of politicians on power.

View

0 Recommendations

Prabhat Ranjan

asked a question related to Public Choice

Do you think that there should be minimum educational qualifications and/or wealth limits to represent the public better?

Question

55 answers

13 Sept 2020

Advanced technology and huge economy is not enough for a society. Establishment of democratic values is also essential for sustainable growth of a society which is possible then only if governments carry out its duties efficiently. Poorly/non-educated public representatives are not able to understand societal and environmental needs. The representatives with huge wealth have tendency to preserve their wealth frameworks. Therefore I propose that there should be provisions to select efficient representatives with clauses on minimum education and maximum wealth.

You are requested to contribute your thoughts, knowledge and experience on this issue.

Relevant answer

Aristidis Matsoukis

14 Sept 2020

Answer

Do you think that there should be minimum educational qualifications and/or wealth limits to represent the public better? I think that minimum educational qualifications and/or wealth limits increase the possibilities of better public representation. Of course, the result is not guaranteed.

View

64 Recommendations

Antoni Kolek

asked a question related to Public Choice

What's your opinion on the public choice theory definition?

Question

5 answers

24 Apr 2014

What do you think about the public choice theory? What type of definitions do you use?

Relevant answer

Dariusz Prokopowicz

19 Dec 2018

Answer

Dear Antoni Kolek, The question was asked 5 years ago. Is it still valid? I'm asking because in our country a lot has changed in the field of research in this field over the past five years. I researched some aspects of this issue and published my research two years ago. greetings

View

5 Recommendations

Simona Tamulyte

asked a question related to Public Choice

4th AML Directive: what does Public Choice thoery say?

Question

3 answers

16 Jul 2016

Hello,

I am currently writing a master thesis on the 4th Anti-Money Laundering Directive which increases compliance costs to banks and other financial institutions. I would like to discuss the proper way to analyze this issue from the Public Choice theory perspective. I would be grateful if you could share any useful insights or literature!

Relevant answer

Simona Tamulyte

20 Jul 2016

Answer

Thank you for both answers! Currently, I am analyzing the article: The Risk Based Approach in the New European Anti-Money Laundering Legislation: A Law and Economics View which I believe is a useful source for analyzing agency problems within the current regulation. But as you are probably aware of, the 4th AML Directive requires Member States to establish a national register of ultimate beneficial owners. I am also interested how it shifts the regulatory burden from the private sector to the public sector and whether it is a positive/efficient change.

View

0 Recommendations

Issofa Moyouwou

asked a question related to Public Choice

Up to now, what is known on (the maximal) domains that guarantee the transitivity of the majority rule?

Question

9 answers

21 Feb 2014

It is well known that the majority rule may not be transitive for some configurations of individual preferences. Domain restrictions are possible ways out. But what is known about maximal such domains (i) with respect to the cardinality? (ii) via set inclusion?

Relevant answer

Issofa Moyouwou

2 Dec 2014

Answer

Thank you very much. I also like the job done on mutiple issues.

View

0 Recommendations

David Stadelmann

asked a question related to Public Choice

How does full transparency of politicians' actions influence the quality of political representation?

Question

4 answers

16 Oct 2014

Transparency in political decision-making is often proposed as a remedy to failures of the political agency. However, a small number of recent theoretical contributions (e.g. Prat 2005 or Fox 2007) discuss potential negative consequences of transparency in political decision-making on the quality of policy outcomes and representation of voter preferences, particularly when actions of politicians such as individual votes are recorded and made publicly available.

We (Stadelmann et al. 2014) try to identify the impact of transparency in political decision-making on the quality of political representation with a difference-in-difference strategy. The quality of political representation is measured by the observed divergence of parliamentary decisions from revealed voter preferences on identical issues. Full transparency of actions of individual politicians does not decrease divergence from voter preferences.

When can transparency of individual actions of politicians pose problems?

Can transparency alone have a significant effect on the quality of political representation or does it need to be complemented with other institutional reforms?

Cited references:

Fox, J. (2007), 'Government Transparency and Policymaking', Public Choice 131(1-2), 23-44.

Prat, A. (2005), 'The Wrong Kind of Transparency', American Economic Review 95(3), 862-877.

Stadelmann, D.; Portmann, M. & Eichenberger, R. (2014), 'Full Transparency of Politicians' Actions Does Not Increase the Quality of Political Representation', Journal of Experimental Political Science 1, 16-23.

Article Full Transparency of Politicians' Actions Does Not Increase ...

Relevant answer

Joshua I. Altman

21 Oct 2014

Answer

I am not sure you can measure the quality of political representation based on the closeness of politicians actions to voters’ claimed preference.

First, what “the people” say they want may or may not reflect what they actually want, a social desirability bias factors into any poll. Additionally poll questions are often flawed, poll the wrong people (Dewy Wins) or just use other combinations of bad methods. an aggregate “poll of polls” or FiveThirtyEight-style model does better than using a single poll, but still has flaws.

Second, representatives are elected to make the hard choices (theoretically) that are in the best interest (theoretically) of his/her constituents, constituency and area the body represents (municipality, state, country). This could be in direct conflict with the will of the people, but in the best interest of the people.

Third, even with more access than ever before, those not elected, and those who’s jobs do not involve following every political movement do not have the time to know every detail of every policy. And even officials an the “political class” do not have the time to do this for every issue. That is one of the reasons representative democracy has existed for thousands of years. We, the unelected have to put these decisions in the hands of others.

Would not high-quality representation be an instance of a lawmaker taking an unpopular vote he/she knows is right, and ultimately turns out to be a “good” vote, but could cost his/her seat in the next election? Is that not why these people are elected?

Not to dive too much into the realm of fiction, but full transparency by politicians is explored in Dave Eggers 2013 novel “The Circle.” In the novel, politicians from the municipal to national level wear body cameras and record their every interaction as do their staffs.

Full transparency in this regard is impossible, first because it creates a tremendous amount of data that needs to be sorted, indexed and quantified. Second there is information that cannot be recorded. In the U.S. one Senate committee promised to keep the identity of a Senator who proposed tax-reform ideas secret for 50 years because of the potential backlash of “doing the right thing” or “taking bold steps.”

I support transparency, but am not sure what you mean by that. Is it televising and steaming all hearings and proceedings? Is it posting every interaction a member has? Staff? Posting public schedules? Private schedules?

I am sure this all reflected my U.S.-based view of the world where we do not have a parliamentary model, and where proportional representation does not exist at the national, state or largely municipal level (although it might somewhere). Here we elect individuals for a fixed set of years (2, 4 or 6 at the national level with Judges appointed for a period of good behavior, usually life or retirement) and do not call for elections on a national level outside of our national election day, although there are always special elections to fill open seats.

View

24 Recommendations

Mihai Mutascu

asked a question related to Public Choice

Welcome!

Question

1 answer

15 Mar 2010

Hello!

Relevant answer

Dunstone Ulwodi

10 Jan 2014

Answer

thanks. Iam looking for the paper authored by Raphael Kazmann titled: Democratic organization: A Preliminary Mathematical model, Public Choice

View

0 Recommendations