Public Choice III

The postulate of methodological individualism underlies all public choice analysis. In trying to explain governmental actions, we begin by analyzing the behavior of the individuals who make up the government. In a democracy these are the voters, their elected representatives, and appointed bureaucrats. The postulate of methodological individualism has a normative analogue. The actions of government ought to correspond, in some fundamental way, to the preferences of the individuals whom these actions affect – the citizens of the state. This postulate of normative individualism underlies much of the normative analysis in public choice. It is quite understandable, therefore, that virtually all research in public choice has concentrated on the analysis of democratic governments, first because virtually all public choice scholars have lived in democratic countries and thus this form of political system has the most intrinsic interest for them, and second because they feel that all governmental systems ought to be organized as democracies.