Bureaucracy - Public Choice Theory - Michael Munger

In order to understand government, you need to understand bureaucracy. Prof. Michael Munger explains that bureaucracy IS government; there’s no other way for a government function. So understanding the characteristics of bureaucracies is important. For example, unlike the private sector, bureaucracies can’t use profits as an indicator of their effectiveness. And citizens can’t take their business elsewhere if they’re unhappy with how a bureaucracy performs. Public choice theory offers insights about the practical limits of bureaucracy and of government. Dr. Michael Munger is a Professor of Political Science at Duke University, and Director of the PPE Certificate Program.

This video is part of a series exploring major concepts in public choice theory. It is also part of a larger series about foundational topics in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (PPE) courses. Videos in the series feature six professors who teach in university PPE programs.

The Institute for Humane Studies supports and partners with professors to promote the teaching and research of classical liberal ideas and to advance higher education’s core purpose of intellectual discovery and human progress.

[rebbecabanuelos]

This information should be more well known by everyone

[johnngala]

Thankyou very much. MSc student at gulu university in Uganda (from kenya)

[plebjames]

Profit is not any guarantee that the organisation is any good. Unreasonable profits can (and are often) made by companies that have a monopoly. In fact, all the problems of bureaucracy highlighted in this video apply to companies that have a monopoly in their area. If we should limit the size of government, shouldn't we also break up monopolies?

[jannikheidemann]

With today's data science tools I think US Americans could expect the congress to be on the watch for 'fires'. In that analogy, the firetruck doesn't have to patrol, because a drone with a thermal camera is enough to patrol automatically and can reasonably go on regular patrols.