News Release

June 1, 2002

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Government Failure: A Primer in Public Choice
Understanding Public Choice

Gordon Tullock, Arthur Seldon, and Gordon L. Brady simplicity unravel the causes and effects, implications and repercussions, of market failure and the role that government should provide.

The romantic view of bureaucrats coming to the rescue confuses the true relationship between economics and politics. Politicians often cite "market failure" as justification for meddling with the economy, but a group of leading scholars show the shortcomings of this view. In Government Failure, these scholars explain the school of study known as "public choice," which uses the tools of economics to understand and evaluate government activity.

Tullock, one of the founders of public choice, explains how government "cures" often cause more harm than good. He provides an engaging overview of public choice and discusses how interest groups seek favors from government at enormous costs to society. Displaying the steely realism that has marked public choice, Tullock shows the political world as it is, rather than, as it should be.

Topics covered include:

• International Trade
• The Internet
• Telecommunications
• Environmental Policy

Government Failure heralds a new approach to the study of politics and public policy. This book enlightens readers with the basic concepts of public choice in an unusually accessible way to show the folly of excessive faith in the state.

Government Failure: A Primer in Public Choice