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date: 08 March 2021

Abstract and Keywords

It is a fact that political delegation and hierarchical political structures are present in almost all countries, democratic and dictatorial alike. In this chapter we explore whether various strands of rational choice theory can justify and explain these two aspects of leadership.

Keywords: rational choice, public choice, delegation, expressive voting, median voter, principal agent, hierarchy

Geoffrey Brennan

Geoffrey Brennan is Professor in the Social and Political Theory group at the Australian National University, and holds a regular visiting position jointly in the Philosophy Department at UNC-Chapel Hill and the Political Science Department at Duke University.

Michael Brooks

Michael Brooks is an Associate Professor at the University of Tasmania. Michael trained initially to be a high school teacher but was drawn back to economics, completing a Masters of Economics at Monash University and a PhD at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. He has lectured at the University of Tasmania for over 30 years. In recent years he has written on taxation, expressive voting and the economics of esteem. One of Michael’s more recent publications is with Geoffrey Brennan on the “cashing out” hypothesis and “soft” and “hard” policies. European Journal of Political Economy, 2011, 27 (4): 601–10.

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