‘Trompe-l’oeil’: A critical exploration of theory underpinning public choice theory and the preference for individual action

In this paper I want to outline the theory of 'public choice', or the application of economics to politics, and discuss some of its central ideas. The apparent rationality of economic theory, as it appears in public choice theory and which now informs educational policymaking in New Zealand, conceals some logical steps which are very convincing on first and even close viewing, but which conceal some major tricks of perspective when critically examined.