Carolina Journal: John Hood's Daily Journal

Carolina Journal | Daily Journal--Look for the Party Label

 I noted a couple of days ago that North Carolina native Richard Weaver helped spark the modern conservative movement with his 1948 bookIdeas Have Consequences. My John Locke Foundation colleagues and I like Weaver’s famous phrase so much that we used it in the subtitle of our new book on North Carolina’s policy agenda.

In political science, the notion that ideas have consequences is actually controversial. Some scholars believe that ideology is neither a reliable predictor nor a valuable explanation for political and legislative outcomes. The argument is that political actors act solely for short-term advantage. They respond to incentives such as financial gain, personal glory, or reelection. To the extent that political actors cite ideology as the reason for their actions, they are either fooling us or fooling themselves – or so goes the argument.

I’m a fan of analyzing political behavior with an economic lens. I think public-choice economics has been a revelation, and that no politician’s protestations of ideological fervor should be taken at face value. We should judge them on what they do, not what they say they will do.

CONTINUED:  http://www.carolinajournal.com/daily_journal/index.html