Abstract
Politics makes strange bedfellows, including alliances of profiteers and moralists who lobby for the same regulations, but for vastly different reasons. Whether such coalitions promote alcohol prohibition (as did the bootleggers and Baptists to whom similar “unholy alliances” are likened), tobacco restrictions, NAFTA, or climate-change policies, political entrepreneurs are the glue that holds them together.
Read full paper
Comment
By Bruce Yandle
PERC Senior Fellow
Randy Simmons, a PERC Senior Fellow, and co-authors Ryan Yonk and Diana Thomas have made a significant and useful contribution to the evolving Bootleggers & Baptists theory of government regulation and action.
According to Google Scholar, there have been more than 3,000 references to the theory since it saw the light of day in 1983. But Simmons, Yonk, and Thomas have done more than just refer to the theory or apply it; they have supplied a missing part to the evolving story—the political entrepreneur, the one who makes things happen. Their efforts help us to understand better how the world works and in this case, how difficult are the prospects for obtaining efficiency-enhancing actions through government regulation.
Founded 30 years ago in Bozeman, Montana, PERC—the Property and Environment Research Center—is the nation’s oldest and largest institute dedicated to improving environmental quality through property rights and markets.
PERC’s publications, each designed to resonate with specific groups, move ideas generated at PERC to broader audiences.
Research is at the heart of PERC's work, with a focus on the question: What is the link between economic growth and environmental quality?
The goal of PERC’s programs is to fully realize the vision of establishing “PERC University,” where scholars, students, policy makers, and others convene to expand the applications of free market environmentalism.
PERC's fellowships share a common goal of exposing new scholars, students, journalists, and policy makers to free market environmentalism, as well as enable scholars already familiar with FME to explore new applications.
PERC continues to publish and present a broad range of research and discussion through podcasts, videos, and other multimedia channels.