Death of a Giant

James McGill Buchannan, winner of the 1986 Nobel Prize in economics, died earlier this week. He was best known for promoting public choice theory, an approach which treats politicians and bureaucrats as utility-maximizing economic agents motivated by self-interest. Rather than making more money, bureaucrats and politicians aim to win reelection, gain more power, more budget authority and prestige but most importantly, put their personal interests ahead of the public interest.