ABSTRACT
Over the last five decades, few research agendas in the social sciences have brought about more controversy about the “proper” role of government than public choice theory. On the one hand, public choice researchers have built theories and empirical studies that start with the core intuitions of economics but extend from that to describe a range of activities in government. On the other hand, political scientists and those working in the policy sciences often point to public choice theory as a primary example of the excesses and pathologies of the rational choice paradigm.
