There is a way for successful policy change

There is a way to pass and implement successful policy change. Yes, changes that can be implemented.

Nobel economist James Buchanan and Gordon Tullock studied public decision processes - all of them - and found successes and called their method Public Choice Theroy. (PCT) In PCT policy changes are made when there is there is unanimous consent. Unanimous? That's impossible? No. During the process you ask the would-be losers what they need. And the end decision gives them something to offset what they would have lost. So everyone is satisfied.

If you need to build a road you give generous relocation to those displaced and lessen the impact on the closest neighbors by fences or plantings.

But how could President Obama use this? By listening to his elected opponents - the House and the Senate Republicans. Obama listen? He is the master of "my way or the highway" and endless straw men. [A straw man is exaggerating your opponent's case beyond recognition, then saying "I disagree with those who say we should push all grandmothers over high cliffs." Then he shows he is much more reasonable than his hyper-fiction opponents.]

For absolute contrast look at how Obamacare was passed. Written in back rooms. With many, many blanks: "The Secretary of HHS will decide." Then after the House passed the 2700-page mess, they intended to correct it in the Senate. "What's the rush?: But Sen. Kennedy died and was replaced by Sen. Scott Brown, as Republican. So they couldn't fix the mess they knew they had created. But after passage they had to line up and say it was what they wanted.

Where were the Republicans? The Senate had a bipartisan study group, but nothing the Republicans suggested was accepted. And former Speaker Nancy Pelosi didn't allow normal hearings through the committee process.

Public Choice Theory works. How about it, Mr. President?

Public Choice Theory was first explained in the book The Calculus of Consent by Buchanan and Tullock in 1962. Wikipedia The book is online at Library of Economics and Liberty

Via Christoper Chantrill at American Thinker.