Russ Roberts on Bootleggers and Baptists

He offers a primer on the model.

The Baptists give the politicians cover for doing what the bootleggers want. No politician says we should ban liquor sales on Sunday in order to enrich the bootleggers who support his campaign. The politician holds up one hand to heaven and talk about his devotion to morality. With the other hand, he collects campaign contributions (or bribes) from the bootleggers.

He proceeds to give some very depressing real-world examples of how this plays out in public policy.

2 thoughts on “Russ Roberts on Bootleggers and Baptists

  1. Such an important concept….it illustrates so much and explains how much of politics works.

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