REGARDING THE WEIRD BELIEF THAT POLITICIANS ACT IN YOUR INTEREST

REGARDING THE WEIRD BELIEF THAT POLITICIANS ACT IN YOUR INTEREST
“Better than Plowing”:
“The whole of the Keynesian and post-Keynesian theory of macroeconomic management (including monetarism) depends critically on the presumption that political agents respond to considerations of “public interest” rather than to the incentives imposed upon them by constituents.  Once these agents are modelled as ordinary persons, the whole policy structure crumbles.”
The Collected Works of James M. Buchanan:The Logical Foundations of Constitutional Liberty; specifically, it’s from Jim’s 1986 autobiographical essay

Yet whenever the relevant actors are government officials – say, members of Congress or the Federal Reserve board – suddenly such advice is widely regarded as displays of deep wisdom and great scientific integrity.
This disconnect remains, for me, one of the greatest mysteries of the social sciences.