Special Interest Groups - Public Choice Theory - Michael Munger

Why is politics dominated by special interest groups? Professor Michael Munger shares key insights from public choice theory, which help explain why small, well-organized groups have an outsized impact on our democracy, even when they are pursuing policies that are against the interests of the vast majority of people. Dr. Michael Munger is a Professor of Political Science at Duke University, and Director of the PPE Certificate Program.
This video is part of a series exploring major concepts in public choice theory. It is also part of a larger series about foundational topics in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (PPE) courses. Videos in the series feature six professors who teach in university PPE programs.
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[@AlejandroSanchez-yc6gu]

Amazing

[@billyte1265]

There's a missing piece to this story. Subisidies to sugar producers should not push *up* the price of sugar, instead it should push it down. The increase in price of sugar is because of protectionist tarrifs on foreign sugar and a price floor on sugar. The replacement of sugar with corn syrup is because of those things, plus corn subsidies.

[@jannikheidemann3805]

If organized self interests are that powerful, that would be an indicator that you in practice don't have a democracy, as that would rather be an indicator of having a oligarchy.
Oligarchies are societies ruled by small self serving interest groups.
They are not ruled by the population (Demos), as would be the case in a true democracy.

[@sigilpop]

Neoliberalism 101

[@jannikheidemann3805]

1:04 Why do we suddenly start measuring preference in $?
I don't think dollars are what people use to determine what they vote for.
A dollar doesn't mean the same for everyone, and I really don't think the USAs currency has a place in an abstract hypothetical example.

[@amirsaid450]

Wow

[@jannikheidemann3805]

2:22 I think it has less to do with optimism an more to do with what assumptions are made in about a theoretical model of a democratic society.
If you then compare that to reality in which you don't have fair democratic processes like in theory, you made an intellectual mistake and didn't disprove anything or even prove the opposite.