Noted: Henry Farrell: "Public" Choice
Henry Farrell: “Public” Choice https://crookedtimber.org/2020/05/12/public-choice/: ‘The public choice approach tends to prefer models that I suspect are particularly unlikely to be helpful in understanding key aspects of the public’s reactions to coronavirus.... Public choice [is] specifically unhelpful... [because] as described by the late Charles Rowley, longtime editor of the journal Public Choice, the public choice approach is a "program of scientific endeavor that exposed government failure coupled to a programme of moral philosophy that supported constitutional reform designed to limit government". In other words, it is not a neutral research program, but one that has a clear political philosophy and set of aims. Bluntly put, it starts from governments bad, markets good, and further assumes that the intersection between governments and markets (where private interests are able to "capture”" government) is very bad indeed. This is useful for understanding some aspects of politics.... There is an interesting affinity between public choice and Marxism, another analytic approach with an associated political program. Both agree on the awful things that can happen when government and business interests are in cahoots, even if each sees a different party as the serpent in its paradise.... [But] it’s a terrible starting point for understanding the public response to coronavirus.... The evidence from public opinion polling is emphatic. People... are in favor of stay at home orders, and closed schools and non-essential businesses.... If there is an instance of democratically legitimate coercion, then stay at home orders are it.... So why then, may the equilibrium break down? It’s clearly not because of express demand from the public. Nor because of cheating (some people may want to free ride, even when the potential rewards include getting sick and dying, but it’s hard to see how they are a majority, or can create one). The plausible answer is that private power asymmetries are playing a crucial role in undermining the equilibrium. Some people—employees with poor bargaining power and no savings—may find themselves effectively coerced into a return to work as normal.... If you’re not lucky, your employer’s power over you may very literally be the power of life and death.... Why don’t you just demand safe working conditions? Perhaps you’re an undocumented immigrant who fears retaliation...
#coronavirus #inequality #noted #politicaleconomy #publichealth #2020-05-18
