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Public choice is the branch of economics which looks at (mostly democratic) government systems using economic logic ie: the ideas of rationality, utility maximization, and game theory etc.

As a student of economics, this seems like a great way to classify questions. Some questions I think might benefit from such a tag:

Is there any reason to vote against the predominant majority?

Strategy to *not* vote for a candidate using Single Transferable Vote

Why can't voting be fair if there are more than two alternatives?

or even:

What factors influence the number of political parties?

Do electoral institutions ensure that political leaders are responsive to the interests of the population as a whole?

I'm definitely new to this community, and I don't want to rock the boat. Is public-choice a reasonable tag to add? Is retroactive tagging acceptable?

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  • What's the advantage of a public choice tag over the election tag? – Sam I am says Reinstate Monica May 21 '14 at 14:05
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    @Sam An election is one of the subjects covered by the public choice branch of economics. Some examples of potential non-election public choice questions: "Why do some people see the ACA as an example of regulatory capture?" "Do any reforms make congressmen more likely to pick policy with larger dispersed gains over smaller concentrated gains?" – lazarusL May 22 '14 at 11:41
  • Public choice seems like a methodological tool more than a broad topic. I'm starting to think that tagging a question I didn't create with a specific methodology for answering it doesn't make sense (even if some answers rely on the public choice literature, eg: politics.stackexchange.com/questions/2825/…, Julian Schuessler's answer.) – lazarusL May 22 '14 at 11:45

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