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… is from pages 125-126 of George Stigler [2]‘s 1975 collection The Citizen and the State: Essays on Regulation [3]; in particular, it’s from Stigler’s classic 1971 article “The Theory of Economic Regulation”:
The voter’s expenditure to learn the merits of individual policy proposals and to express his preferences (by individual and group representation as well as by voting) are determined by expected costs and returns, just as they are in the private marketplace. The costs of comprehensive information are higher in the political arena because information must be sought on many issues of little or no direct concern to the individual, and accordingly, he will know little about most matters before the legislature. The expression of preferences in voting will be less precise than the expressions of preferences in the marketplace because many uninformed people will be voting and affecting the decision.