Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Government : The only entity within a territory that can dictate what people must
do/not do, and can legitimately use force and restraints on an individual’s freedom
to achieve that end.
● Much larger
● Engage in activities that can improve quality of life for citizens (other entities
could too)
Government = Part of the solution
Private economic interactions —> inefficiency and Unfairness —> Policies to
address it
Methods :
Any organization with enough power to address the problems of efficiency and
fairness also has the power to do great harm
Examples include using force to silence opponents and acquiring huge incomes
for officials and leaders to use privately
● Democratic elections
● Constitutional restrictions on what the government can do
Dictatorship model: Government as monopolist
Dictator is entirely selfish
The Nash equilibrium is to both locate in the middle of the spectrum —> Each
party gets half the voters
Median voter: If voters can be lined up along a single dimension, the median
voter is the one ‘in the middle’ of the spectrum.
In reality, political parties may not always choose to locate ‘in the middle’, for
several reasons :
● Economic infeasibility
● Administrative feasibility
● Special interests (opposition by certain groups)
1) Economic infeasibility
But inclusive unions can raise the price-setting curve, mitigating these effects
2) Administrative infeasibility
● Median voter model explains how political parties choose platforms to get
elected
● Effect of democracy on economic outcomes
● The limits of democratic governments