Politics Without Romance

by Don Boudreaux on November 17, 2009

In this article, I celebrate — on the occasion of his 90th birthday — the central lessons taught by Jim Buchanan (who, I have just learned, will again teach a seminar at GMU this coming Spring semester!).

A key ‘graf from my article:

Buchanan insists that we should always look upon “politics without romance,” that we ought never to forget that all the fine campaign phrases and soaring promises issued by politicians too often disguise the selfish, sometimes sleazy, reality of political activity.

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Matt

'graf? I guess that's what the cool kids are saying these days....

OnlyShawn

ooo...I'll be revisiting the course registrations.

Bill

Thanks, Don. I've passed this on to my non-economist friends as a brief tutorial on public choice .

Sam Grove

I take issue with the "sometimes".

edwardhake

Why is it that the public at large seems to view the things with so little skepticism? Easy the dumbed down educational system. The all actions most be for the "greater good", even though you know your being screwed.

vidyohs

An Ohio politician a few years back was sued for reneging on his campaign promises, seriously sued by some one in Ohio.

The dude that sued, had the bucks to take it to the SCOTUS, and the SCOTUS ruled that politicians can, in essence, lie with impunity.

Take that suckers!!!!

Anyone who has reached age 15 and has not realized this:

"A key ‘graf from my article:

Buchanan insists that we should always look upon “politics without romance,” that we ought never to forget that all the fine campaign phrases and soaring promises issued by politicians too often disguise the selfish, sometimes sleazy, reality of political activity."

has his head up his butt and is lost in the trivial things of life.

Geoff

Vidyohs,

You have have piqued my interest, but I have had no luck searching for information on the case. Do you have any specifics that would help me locate the findings? Thanks.

Seth

Excellent 'graf.

Good advice. Politicians are narcissists. Even the ones I vote for. I always try to keep that mind.

Curious

All people are selfish (whether they admit it or not), not just politicians. So that is not a problem.

There will always be sleazy people, so what? That is not a problem either.

The problem is a system that allows one person to steal from another without punishment. Democracy is the problem.