{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.020874751491053677, 'fraction_numerical': 0.007952286282306162, 'mean_word_length': 5.333333333333333, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Self-Interest in Politics Earns a Nobel Prize: A George Mason University economist applies marketplace analysis to government decision-making and brings more reality to political science.

PU UBLIC choice theory, for which James Buchanan of George Mason University, Virginia, has been awarded the 1986 Alfred Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Science, is very much a symbol ofthe times. Straddling as it does the boundary between economics and politics, the theory essentially predicts that democratically elected governments are more likely to serve their own interests than those of the people who elected them. Ergo, less government is better government, a sentiment that Ronald Reagan embraced in 1980 when he was elected president-and still does. The reason that the traditional idea of beneficent government fails, argues Buchanan, is that politicians are motivated more by self-interest than by an altruistic commitment to higher callings, such as statesmanship and national interest. "This should be