publicise its arguments. At a time when the post-war social democratic
consensus was beginning to crumble, public choice theory, together with
the monetarism of Milton Friedman (1963), the economic liberalism of
Friedrich Hayek (1978) and the social conservatism of writers like Irving
Kristol (1983), provided intellectual ammunition and a burgeoning policy
agenda for New Right politicians like Reagan and Thatcher (Dunleavy and
O’Leary 1987; King 1987; Self 1993; Stretton and Orchard 1994). At this
point, James Buchanan (1984: 21) is, once again, worth quoting: