The Public Choice Society is an organization mentioned on The Bob Zadek Show only in the course of introducing guests. In the excerpts, it appears twice as a credential held by Randall Holcombe and once as a credential held by Michael Munger. No excerpt describes the society’s founding, purpose, membership, publications, meetings, or internal debates. What the sources do supply is the intellectual context in which the society’s name is invoked: the theory of Public Choice, which both guests explain at length.
Randall Holcombe and the society
Bob Zadek introduced Randall Holcombe to listeners as the DeVoe Moore Professor of Economics at Florida State University, a research fellow at the Independent Institute, and a past president of the Public Choice Society. In the same introduction, Zadek also identified Holcombe as past president of the Society for the Development of Austrian Economics and a senior fellow at the James Madison Institute. [[episodes/john_marini_on__unmasking_the_administrative_state|John Marini on Unmasking the Administrative State (2019)]]
The introduction served as the frame for a discussion of Holcombe’s book Liberty in Peril, subtitled How the Fundamental Principle of American Government Was Transformed from Liberty to Democracy. Zadek told listeners that the book argues democracy has become, in the opinion of public officials and most Americans, the most cherished commodity, meaning citizens’ direct participation in government. Zadek said democracy was feared by the Founders and is by no means a goal to be sought more and more. [[episodes/john_marini_on__unmasking_the_administrative_state|John Marini on Unmasking the Administrative State (2019)]]
The same introduction, with the same list of Holcombe’s positions and the same description of the book, was broadcast again in a later episode. There, Zadek again named Holcombe as past president of the Public Choice Society alongside his posts at Florida State, the Independent Institute, the Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, and the James Madison Institute. Randall G. Holcombe on Liberty in Peril (2019)
In neither excerpt does Holcombe himself discuss the Public Choice Society. His only words in the excerpts are thanks for the invitation. The society’s presence in these episodes is entirely a matter of how the host chose to establish his guest’s standing.
Michael Munger and Public Choice theory
Michael Munger was introduced as a professor of political science, economics, and public policy at Duke University, a former staff economist for the Federal Trade Commission, the Libertarian candidate for governor in North Carolina in the 2008 presidential election, a senior fellow of the Independent Institute, a writer for the American Institute of Economic Research, and the former president and chair of the Public Choice Society. Troubleshooting the Constitution (2022)
Zadek told listeners the show would spend a fair amount of time discussing the theory of public choice. When he turned to the subject, he asked Munger to explain the concept, noting that Munger had written and spoken about it extensively and had been president of the Public Choice Society some years earlier. Troubleshooting the Constitution (2022)
Munger’s account of the theory’s origins placed it in the late 1950s and early 1960s, describing it as partly a response to the assumption that people who worked in private markets were self-interested while people who worked for government were public servants concerned with the public good. Public Choice, he said, took the tools of economics and applied them to the study of government institutions. Troubleshooting the Constitution (2022)
Munger illustrated the theory with the concept of concentrated benefits and diffuse costs, which Zadek had raised first. Zadek described how a small group with a dramatic, concentrated benefit can out-organize a large group bearing a slight, diffuse detriment, and said the imbalance affects governmental policy. Munger agreed that small concentrated groups will always defeat large diffuse groups for that reason, and concluded that relying on political processes produces what is good for corporations, unions, and groups with concentrated interests that can organize, rather than what is good for the people. Troubleshooting the Constitution (2022)
Munger also described what he called the Munger Test, which he presented as the essence of Public Choice. When someone says the state should be in charge of something, he said, he takes out the word “state” and puts in the name of a particular politician. He said he was not trying to make a partisan point, because there is no state; what exists are individual politicians whose incentives are created by the system of politics, and those incentives reward organized interest groups. Troubleshooting the Constitution (2022)
Across episodes
The Public Choice Society is named in three episodes, all through host introductions: twice as a past presidency held by Randall Holcombe and once as a past presidency held by Michael Munger. The excerpts show no development in how the society is treated — it is a credential in each case, never a subject — and the only substantive discussion of Public Choice theory comes from Munger, with Holcombe given no comparable exposition in the excerpts. [[episodes/john_marini_on__unmasking_the_administrative_state|John Marini on Unmasking the Administrative State (2019)]] Troubleshooting the Constitution (2022)
What the sources do not cover
The excerpts do not state when the Public Choice Society was founded, where it is based, who its members are, what it publishes, or what it does. They do not say whether Holcombe and Munger served at different times, what the office of president or chair entails, or how the society relates to the academic field Munger describes. Nothing in the excerpts indicates that either guest discussed the society itself on air, and no excerpt quotes a guest saying anything about the organization. The article can therefore record only that the society was named as a credential in these broadcasts, not what the society is.