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Attempts to solve public choice problem
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Jun 5, 2025
Historical approaches to avoiding or mitigating public choice behaviors. Austin Constitution meetup Feb. 22, 2010, Part 3 of 4.
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the second major approach although it
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was not
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uh hoped to be a major factor by the
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founders hoped that uh elections would
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be
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nonpartisan uh is that however
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competition between parties in
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elections the founders hope that
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competition would be among individuals
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rather than
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parties but it soon happened that uh
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voters organized themselves into parties
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and parties became dominant in uh in
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elections with the Advent of
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parties attempts began to emerge to
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restrict campaign
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expenditures and to restrict donations
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to
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campaigns these efforts have generally
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not
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worked uh they continue to be attempted
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but uh it be is apparent to most who
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have investigated the matter that they
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mainly serve to protect incumbents
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against
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Challengers so as a campaign prodection
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measure you have they've been they've
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been
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successful but as a way to reduce the
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influence
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of big money they have not been
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successful another approach has been uh
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term
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limits is thought by limiting the number
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of terms that an official can
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serve that uh it will reduce the it will
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reset the competition periodically so
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that new people keep having to build
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their itical basis and thereby limit the
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uh influence of special interest on
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them another method that's used for
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example in u the
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military and in some other large
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governmental
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organizations Is frequent
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reassignments in the
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military uh Personnel are re sign
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periodically to prevent them from
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engaging into what is called Empire
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building another another method that has
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been attempted is life
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tenure in the Constitution provides that
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this be done for uh federal judges who
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serve life appointments subject only to
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good
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behavior finally
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finally the method which is also found
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in the constitution is
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sortition uh is the word sortition is
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not used in the
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Constitution but uh juries and Grant
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trial jurries and grand juries are
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supposed to be selected at
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random which is what sortition
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means as a way to avoid undue influence
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on the way they make decisions
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now let's examine each one of
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these separation of powers depends on
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all parts not falling under the control
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of the same hands for a single party or
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faction uh this might have worked if
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people had not organized into parties
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and if the special interests had not
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tried to exercise undue influence on
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both or all of the Cal
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parties but that hasn't worked out that
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way competing parties depends on both
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major parties if it's the system is set
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up to favor a two-party system not
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falling under the undue influence of the
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same
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interest but in fact we've seen that
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although some interests favor one of two
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parties more than another that many of
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those interests
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actually uh exercise the same influence
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on both major
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parties restricting expenditures can't
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prevent expenditures by outside interest
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to influence elections or the public
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decisions uh we've seen the recent
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decision by the Supreme Court in
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citizens
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united which
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removed the authority to restrict
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expenditures
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by large cor by
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corporations uh the Supreme Court relied
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on the First Amendment which states that
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Congress shall make no law
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infringing on the freedom of speech or
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the press it made no exceptions for
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corporations so as a result it makes no
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difference whether a corporation or an
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individual spends money as long as he
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does it in a way that's not
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coordinated with an election
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campaign and in fact he opens the
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possibility
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that uh candidates May rely on outside
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organizations to support their
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campaigns and not even seek donations
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for their own campaign at
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all
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uh they can
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essentially uh Outsource all of the
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campaign as long as they don't control
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or too closely coordinate with the
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outside uh
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campaigns restrictions on donations have
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the same problem you can't prevent
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Outsiders from unduly influencing
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elections or the public decisions as
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long as money can influence it
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will we need ways that are not
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susceptible to money
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term limits don't work
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because the real power is exercised by
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the
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stats and it can take many terms before
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uh an elected official learns enough and
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makes the connections to exercise power
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on his own
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behalf until he can do that which can
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take
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decades uh the staffs are in
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control and uh he won't be able to get
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anything done unless he appoints
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staffers who are more likely than not
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not really working for
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him probably working for outside
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parties frequent reassignments only work
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for jobs and workers that are
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interchangeable from one location is to
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another um it can work in the military
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because military personnel are
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considered uh more or less like
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interchangeable
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parts but it's in fields where the
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skills are rare and the jobs require
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such highly specialized
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skills uh frequent
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reassignments really doesn't work as an
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alternative
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well life tenure has been
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tried but if you make a bad choice in
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the appointment let's say of a judge all
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it does is entrench the bad
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choice so uh there are problems with
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that as
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well sortition is the only way that has
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been found to work to produce undue
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influence but it presents a problem of
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how to ensure adequate
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skills if the job to be done requires
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very Advanced
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skills then choosing at random from the
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general population is probably not going
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to uh provide the skills that are
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needed but as soon as you try to adopt
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screening methods
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for screening out low-skilled
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people you begin to run the risk that
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special interest can unduly influence
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the pools that will emerge of skilled
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workers if uh it's possible to unduly
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influence everyone who has the skill
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that's needed than selecting the workers
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from those that have the skills at
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random won't necessarily
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help
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