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"Public choice theory has been the avenue through which a romantic and illusory set of notions about the workings of governments and the behavior of persons who govern has been replaced by a set of notions that embody more skepticism about what governments can do and what governors will do, notions that are surely more consistent with the political reality that we may all observe about us."

— Buchanan, James M. event 1999

From The Logical Foundations of Constitutional Liberty (p. 45)

Context: From "Politics without Romance: A Sketch of Positive Public Choice Theory and Its Normative Implications," a 1979 lecture at the Institute for Advanced Studies, Vienna, reprinted in The Logical Foundations of Constitutional Liberty (1999), pp. 45-46. Buchanan explains the title he chose for the lecture: Public Choice replaces the assumption that officials act as benevolent, disinterested servants of the public with the same self-interest economists already assume of everyone else.

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