Bruce Yandle’s “bootleggers & Baptists” model of political coalition formation is one of the most useful models in the political economy of regulation (and one that both Mike and I employ frequently, as seen by our many posts using the model).
Here’s a great new Learn Liberty video featuring Bruce himself describing how coalitions of seemingly-unlikely interests can form to enact particular regulations. He describes the original formulation, and then applies it to environmental regulation.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msQ_khFmKtU&w=560&h=315]