Definition
Politicians are persons involved in the process of public policymaking in their role as members of governments, parliaments, political parties, and other political bodies at the (sub)national level (e.g., local government, state legislature, national parliament, etc.) as well as within the supranational political arena (e.g., United Nations Security Council, European Union institutions, and so on). Many politicians get into office through a democratic election, while others are selected or appointed to a public office. For many politicians, politics is a full-time job, while for others, it remains an activity in addition to a main job as a lawyer, teacher, or entrepreneur. This entry takes stock of what law and economics (LE) scholars have contributed to the large social science literature on politicians.
The Law and Economics of Politicians
Analyzing what politicians do belongs to the “core business” of political scientists. However, the law and economics discipline has...
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Bovens M, Goodin RE, Schillemans T (eds) (2016) The Oxford handbook of public accountability. Oxford University Press, Oxford
Braendle T (2016) Do institutions affect citizens’ selection into politics? J Econ Surv 30:205–227
Bramoullé Y, Goyal S (2016) Favoritism. J Dev Econ 122:16–27
Buchanan JM (2008) Same players, different game: how better rules make better politics. Constit Polit Econ 19:171–179
Congleton RD, Hillman AL (eds) (2015) Companion to the political economy of rent seeking. Edward Elgar, Cheltenham
Djankov S, La Porta R, Lopez-de-Silanes F, Shleifer A (2010) Disclosure by politicians. Am Econ J App Econ 2:179–209
Downs A (1957) An economic theory of democracy. Harper & Row, New York
Dreher A, Lang VF (2016) The political economy of international organizations. CESifo Working paper no. 6077
Geys B, Mause K (2016) The limits of electoral control: evidence from last-term politicians. Legis Stud Q 41:873–898
Gherghina S, Volintiru C (2017) A new model of clientelism: political parties, public resources, and private contributors. Eur Polit Sci Rev. 9(1):115–137. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1755773915000326
Hodler R, Raschky PA (2014) Regional favoritism. Q J Econ 129:995–1033
Matter U, Stutzer A (2015) The role of lawyer-legislators in shaping the law: evidence from voting on tort reforms. J Law Econ 58:357–384
Mause K (2014) Self-serving legislators? An analysis of the salary-setting institutions of 27 EU parliaments. Constit Polit Econ 25:154–176
McCubbins MD, Noll RG, Weingast BR (2007) The political economy of law. In: Polinsky AM, Shavel S (eds) Handbook of law and economics, vol 2. North-Holland Publishing, Amsterdam, pp 1651–1738
Mueller DC (2003) Public choice III. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Parisi F (ed) (2011) Production of legal rules. Vol. 7 of encyclopedia of law and economics, 2nd edn. Cheltenham, Edward Elgar
Persson T, Tabellini G (2004) Constitutions and economic policy. J Econ Perspect 18:75–98
Posner RA (2014) Economic analysis of law, 9th edn. Wolters Kluwer Law & Business, New York
Rose-Ackerman S, Palifka BJ (2016) Corruption and government: causes, consequences, and reform, 2nd edn. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
van Aaken A, Voigt S (2011) Do individual disclosure rules for parliamentarians improve government effectiveness? Econ Gov 12:301–324
Williamson OE (1985) The economic institutions of capitalism. Firms, markets, relational contracting. The Free Press, New York
Wohlgemuth M (1999) Entry barriers in politics, or: why politics, like natural monopoly, is not organised as an ongoing market-process. Rev Austrian Econ 12:175–200
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature
About this entry
Cite this entry
Geys, B., Mause, K. (2019). Politicians. In: Marciano, A., Ramello, G.B. (eds) Encyclopedia of Law and Economics. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7753-2_370
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7753-2_370
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4614-7752-5
Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-7753-2
eBook Packages: Economics and FinanceReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences