The private uses of public interests: incentives and institutions

The failure of the federal government to achieve Pareto or near-Pareto improvements for the public interest can be explained by four interrelated hypotheses. One such hypothesis is the inability of the government to make commitments. Another is coalition forming and bargaining that result in suboptimal outcomes. The third explanation is destructive competition which is very common in zero-sum games. The last hypothesis for the failure of the government to implement Pareto improvements is the uncertainty about the consequences of change.