Political Entrepreneurs

The Economic Engine of Political Change

Leaders, Your Choice of Words Matters

September 25th, 2017 by Edward Lopez

I’ve been teaching college economics for a little over two decades now. Years ago I learned that I need to watch very closely my choice of language in the classroom. For example, early in my teaching days I would lace a “hell” and a “damn” or two into my lectures. I can’t say I pondered the reasons very carefully. I suppose I was just trying to be relatable and have an effect. But soon I realized that my words had set a tone for the class, one that students would themselves adopt and carry even further.

At first I became a little surprised when they started dropping an occasional “bullshit” or “fuck” in addition to my seemingly innocuous “hells” and “damns”. My naivety wore off when I internalized the fact that, at least in the little micro society of my class, I am a leader. And people will follow my lead. So I quickly stopped cussing in the classroom, and ever since I’ve consciously tried to keep an elevated and respectful tone, one where students can be productive and decent with one another.

Our Whatever-in-Chief needs to learn this lesson, because like it or not people follow his lead, and his words are degrading our society. 

This blog grew out of Wayne’s and my 2013 book, Madmen, Intellectuals, and Academic Scribblers. In that book we take seriously the effect that ideas have on social institutions. Words matter. Words of leaders especially matter. And when their words are unfitting of their leadership positions, they make themselves unfit for those positions.

From the Pages of Madmen, Intellectuals, and Academic Scribblers (p.189, ch.7)

The most successful entrepreneurs know what they do well, they know the market and the opportunities within it, and they choose those activities that create the most value. This is true in economic as well as political markets.

From the Pages of Madmen, Intellectuals, and Academic Scribblers (p.178, ch.7)

[W]hen the right elements come together at the right time and place and overwhelm the status quo, it is because special people make it happen. We call them political entrepreneurs.

From the Pages of Madmen, Intellectuals, and Academic Scribblers (p.176. ch.7)

While we started this book with Danny Biasone saving basketball, we end it with Norman Borlaug saving a billion lives. These stories are not that different. Both faced vested interests, which were reinforced by popular beliefs that things should be a certain way—that is, until a better idea came along.

From the Pages of Madmen, Intellectuals, and Academic Scribblers (p.174, ch.6)

Because there was a general belief that homeownership was a good thing, politicians found the public with open arms.... Everybody was winning—except Alfred Marshall, whose supply and demand curves were difficult to see through the haze of excitement at the time, and except Friedrich Hayek, whose competition as a discovery procedure was befuddled... In short, once politicians started getting credit for homeownership rates, the housing market was doomed.

From the Pages of Madmen, Intellectuals, and Academic Scribblers (p.166, ch.6)

Everyone responded rationally to the incentives before them. In short, the rules that guided homeownership changed over time, which in turn changed the incentives of these actors. And bad things happened.

From the Pages of Madmen, Intellectuals, and Academic Scribblers (p.153, ch.6)

They understood the economics. The ideas had already won in ... the regulatory agency itself. All that remained to be overcome were some vested interests and a handful of madmen in authority.

From the Pages of Madmen, Intellectuals, and Academic Scribblers (p.146, ch.6)

If the idea for auctions of spectrum use rights had been part of the public debate since at least 1959, why didn’t the relevant institutions change sooner? What interests stood in the way?

From the Pages of Madmen, Intellectuals, and Academic Scribblers (p.121, ch.5)

When an academic scribbler comes up with a new idea, it has to resonate well with widely shared beliefs, which in turn must overcome the vested interests at the table. Many forces come together to explain political change, even though it may seem like coincidence of time and place.

From the Pages of Madmen, Intellectuals, and Academic Scribblers (p.120, ch.5)

It’s the rules of the political game that deserve our focus, not politicians’ personalities or party affiliations.

From the Pages of Madmen, Intellectuals, and Academic Scribblers (p.119, ch.5)

In short, ideas are a type of higher-order capital in society. Like a society that is poor in capital and therefore produces little consumer value, a society that is poor in ideas and institutions will have bad incentives and therefore few of the desirable outcomes that people want.

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