... phenomenon. Although the best-known work in the field of public choice theory is to be found in the writers of the 1960s and 70s, Niskanen and Downs were certainly very much influenced by the writings of Bagehot and de Tocqueville from the 19th century. It is though only with the election of a Conservative government, under Margaret Thatcher in 1979, that these theories of bureaucratic inefficiency and over-production were to come to the fore and be espoused in government policy. A series of reforms of the British public sector, that began immediately after the Conservatives came into office, was to attempt to radically reshape the system, and leant heavily on those solutions suggested by the public choice theorists. So how accurate is public choice theory in describing bureaucratic behaviour, and how effective has it been in providing solutions to what it sees as inadequacies within public administration? Perhaps the best way to tackle this question is to look at the public choice models themselves and the solutions that ...

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