Analytical frameworks
Economic and public-administration theories
Why inefficient structures appear: not proposals, but tools for thinking, with their academic sources.
- Public economicsFiscal federalismThe theoretical framework that explains at which level of government (national, regional, local) each spending decision should be taken, and why excessive fragmentation at the local level loses its advantages.
- Public economics / public choiceThe budget-maximising bureaucracyA model from public choice theory that explains why public institutions tend to grow, through the incentive structure of those who run them, not necessarily through ill will.
- Public economics / regulationRegulatory captureThe theory that explains why authorities created to regulate an industry in the public interest sometimes end up serving the interests of the companies they are supposed to oversee.