Selective Perceptions and the Politics of Agricultural Policy Analysis

James D. Shaffer

Choices: The Magazine of Food, Farm, and Resource Issues, 1990, vol. 05, issue 3, 5

Abstract: Policy analysis and policy debate make a difference in the formulation of public policy. However, policy analysis and debate are often biased or incomplete. People are inconsistent as to the "legal and moral rights" they invoke and apply to different policy issues. We are much like the horse wearing blinders. For example, many of those who supported the Declaration of Independence, with its ringing endorsement of equality among men, held slaves and perceived no conflict between their beliefs and behavior. The perception of equality and its application in political-economic life was highly selective. Still later, the Civil War was fought over different perceptions of politically or morally acceptable definitions of property rights.

Keywords: Consumer/Household Economics; Institutional and Behavioral Economics; Public Economics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1990
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:aaeach:131286

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.131286

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