PoolLines: Imperfect Public Choice

We model imperfect governments with public choices which are sequential, myopic, and not free of error. We first use this framework to explore governmental incremental budgeting. We argue that a model of bounded rationality is required to capture the empirical reality of incremental budgeting. We then provide a model which integrates bounds errors and systematic errors. We argue that the empirical evidence is that bounds errors and systematic errors are inextricably intertwined–some level of bounded rationality is required for systematic errors to emerge. We use this to explore political information lobbying. A testable hypothesis is that lobbyists will focus efforts on policy makers of low ability. We show that choosing leaders with high ability, that is Madison’s wisdom to discern, is important, especially when policy decisions concern dangerous products (rifles) or dangerous environments (pandemics).