The authors present a framework for understanding political
change, drawing especially on their deep knowledge of public choice
theory. But they are well-read students
in the history of thought more broadly and their framework draws upon an
impressive array of ideas, old and new.
The central characters in their framework are those
mentioned in their title. The nonstandard
names they have chosen for these characters were taken from quotes from two
economists who are about as far away from each other philosophically as
possible. From John Maynard Keynes we
get “Madmen” and “academic scribblers”, and from Freidrich August von Hayek we
get “intellectuals.” It is important to
grasp that in this framework, academics are not the same as intellectuals! Here is the famous original quote from Keynes:
The ideas of economists and political
philosophers, both when they are right and when they are wrong, are more
powerful than is commonly understood. Indeed the world is ruled by little else.
Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual
influence, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist. Madmen in authority, who hear voices in
the air, are distilling their frenzy from some academic scribbler of a few years back. I am sure that the power of
vested interests is vastly exaggerated compared with the gradual encroachment
of ideas.
John Maynard Keynes, The General Theory of Employment, Interest
and Money (1935), p. 383 emphasis
added.
And from Hayek:
The term
"intellectuals"...does not at once convey a true picture of the large
class to which we refer… The typical intellectual … need not possess special
knowledge of anything in particular, nor need he even be particularly
intelligent, to perform his role as intermediary in the spreading of ideas.
Freidrich August von Hayek, “The
Intellectuals and Socialism,” University
of Chicago Law Review (1949)
An oversimplification of their framework, which diminishes
the careful thought the authors put into developing it, but that does give a
reader the flavor of what the book is about, is to say that academic scribblers
(scholars like Keynes and Hayek) come up with ideas, which are in turn
popularized by intellectuals (i.e. journalists, teachers, etc.) and finally
madmen in authority (politicians) act when the ideas have caught on among the
public. However this is a vast
simplification of their framework, and the whole second half of the book is
spent describing the inner-workings of the top-down depiction of the process I
outline above, and they also emphasize the bottom-up influence ideas can have on
the process of political change, again, drawing on an impressive array of ideas
both old and new.
The first half of the book is a crash course in the history
of political thought, economic theory, and public choice theory. The second half builds up the framework and
applies it to four examples of political change, including airline deregulation
and welfare reform. I would recommend
the whole book, but someone short on time who is familiar with the history of economic
thought could skip ahead and read chapter 5 directly after the introduction.
The book is a contribution to the scholarly literature, and
arguably its main contribution is to create a framework with a central role for
what they term “political entrepreneurs.”
These are individuals whose actions are central for bringing about
policy change. Other people have written about how changing
ideas and attitudes were critical precursors to the deregulation movement of
the 1970s and 80s, (for example, Richard H.K. Vietor’s Contrived Competition: Regulation and Deregulation in America.) However focusing only on the role of ideas
neglects the critical role played by certain individuals (like Alfred Kahn in the
case of airline deregulation.)
I don’t want to give the impression that the book is not a
fun to read just because it makes a contribution to the scholarly literature,
because in addition to applying and organizing some very deep ideas, this book
is also packed full of interesting anecdotes and neat tidbits; students,
professional economists and educated lay audiences will all learn new things
and will remain entertained throughout. Some
of the fun facts I took away from this book include that Larry Summers, former
top advisor to President Obama, is Paul Samuelson’s (the second economist to
win the Nobel prize in economics) nephew.
Nor did I know that Ronald Coase got the idea to auction off rights from
a University of Chicago law school student. The
name of the boat that stranded the castaways in the 1960s television sitcom Gilligan’s Island, the S.S. Minnow, was
chosen because the then FCC chairman Newt Minow had spoken harshly about the
television industry. And on and on.
Having just finished reading this book before giving
a lecture on regulation in my Industrial Organization class, my performance noticeably
improved. I liberally ripped-off lines I
had gotten from the book. I plan to
continue to do this in my teaching!
In order to facilitate conversation in our workshop, I came up with questions for each of the book’s seven chapters.
I will make them
available
here so that others reading this book, or assigning it to their
students, may benefit.
(Take note,
allocation economists, I am providing free public goods! ; )
