… is from page 35 of my late, great colleague Gordon Tullock’s 2000 paper (with Gordon Brady), “People Are People,” as this essay is reprinted in volume 4 (The Economics of Politics) of Tullock’s Selected Works (Charles K. Rowley, ed., 2005):
The politician in a democratic society is a man who makes a living winning elections.
DBx: Yes.
The politician in a democratic society is not someone who has specialized knowledge and skills at doing any of the tasks that he or she typically promises voters that he or she will carry out – tasks such as divining how resources can be better allocated or how to bring about here on earth something closer to nirvana.
With relatively few exceptions, the politician in any society – not only in a democratic society – is an officious busybody. He or she is someone who mistakes his or her good intentions and unconstrained imaginings – and lust for power – as a moral charge fused to a miraculous ability to boss other people around for their own good.
In short, the politician is someone not to be trusted with the power that he or she seeks.
