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Review
By GORDON TULLOCK
University of Virginia
3It is not, of course, necessarily impractical for small parts of the government. The
government itself must be chosen by the voters, but it might contract for the perform-
ance of various services by the method we are here discussing and obtain qualified ex-
perts to judge the bids.
" In Switze.rland and a few other places this compensation is purely noonpecuiiary.
vide for public support for the organizational costs of a potential com-
petitor and hence keep the entry barrier low. Here is one place where
potential competition is obviously highly effective, but only because of
intelligent public policy.
This paper has, in a sense, been an exercise in applying economic
analysis to a completely noneconomic area. In our universities as they
are now organized the subject matter of my paper, political organiza-
tion, is taught in one department and the techniques of analysis I have
employed are taught in another. It is probably for this reason that the
rather simple and straightforward line of reasoning I have presented
has never before been brought out. In this area, as in so many others,
practical men have solved problems that the theorists have not even
thought of. It seems to me that this paper is a simple but plain demon-
stration of the need of some change of our present ways of organizing
knowledge. Economists who are interested in politics and political
theorists who have a command of economic tools can perform research
which is impossible for the more traditionally trained man. This thesis
will not be new to the members of this panel, nor, I think, to many of
the listeners in this room. I am, in a sense, preaching to the converted,
but I am asking you to go out and preach the gospel to all the nations.