Citizens sort into jurisdictions that match their preferences.
Tiebout's 1956 model. Its condition is mobility, which is why it describes American suburbs better than it describes anywhere people cannot easily move, and why it understates the cost of sorting.
In practice
- A council that raises its precept loses the households that can move and keeps the ones that cannot, and the tax base worsens either way.
- A family choosing a district for its schools is voting with its feet, and a family that cannot afford to move is governed by whoever wins.
- Subject
- Law & Politics
- Essay
- Competing accounts of how power works