Public Choice and Political Equality

Public choice theory is a branch of economics that analyses political institutions using the tools and methods of economics. This essay is about what public choice theory can teach us about political equality as a normative ideal, by focusing on the relationship between rent seeking and political inequality. One important lesson public choice theory teaches us is that political inequality is sometimes driven by unequal wealth, but is at other times driven by other, more subtle factors. Thus, even if we lived in a society where wealth was distributed in a perfectly equal manner, political inequality would still be a significant problem. Beyond teaching us about some of the root causes of political inequality, public choice theorists have also offered novel proposals for how to remedy this problem. Thus, by engaging the literature on public choice, philosophers can gain new insights about how to fight a pervasive problem confronting democratic societies.”

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