Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-zzh7m Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-27T15:39:18.136Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

6 - Reform and the rent-seeking legislature

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 December 2009

James L. Regens
Affiliation:
Tulane University, Louisiana
Ronald Keith Gaddie
Affiliation:
Tulane University School of Medicine, Louisiana
Get access

Summary

Each, in consequence, has a greater regard for his own safety or happiness, than for the safety or happiness of others; and, where these come in opposition, is ready to sacrifice the interests of others to his own.

John C. Calhoun Disquisition on Government

Personal abuse, constant tension, limited financial return, disorganized and dislocated personal life, and a multitude of uncertainties all serve to discourage good men from service in Congress.

Former Congressman Frank E. Smith Congressman From Mississippi

Economists have long held that potentially contestable assets will attract investment in direct proportion to their production capabilities. A standard assumption in the public choice literature is that the relationship between politicians and economic interests can be modeled in a manner similar to market exchanges. Presumably, politicians are in a position to extract rents from interested parties by providing selected benefits such as regulatory policies favorable to industry or other stakeholders in the political process. Our analysis demonstrates how the concept of rent seeking enhances understanding of political-action-committee (PAC) strategies, since PACs possess the capability of allocating financial resources to candidates as differential rents. Among legislators, the ability to produce policy outputs for particularized interests can be viewed as an exercise that allows members to place an implicit price on outputs. Benefit-seeking interests can bid for outputs in an effort to gain additional remuneration in the market through government subsidy or other implicit wealth transfer, such as monopoly regulation.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Economic Realities of Political Reform
Elections and the US Senate
, pp. 99 - 105
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1995

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×