<P> Public choice theory (sometimes called "positive political theory") applies microeconomic methodology to the study of political science in order to explain how private interests inform political activities . Whereas welfare economics, in line with classical political economy, typically assumes a public - interest perspective on policymaking, public choice analysis adopts a private - interest perspective in order to identify how the objectives of policymakers affect policy outcomes . Public choice analysis thus diagnoses deviations from the common good resulting from activities such as rent - seeking . In The Logic of Collective Action, Mancur Olson argues that public goods will tend to be underprovided due to individuals' incentives to free - ride . Anthony Downs provided an application of this logic to the theory of voting, identifying the paradox of voting whereby rational individuals prefer to abstain from voting, because the marginal cost exceeds the private marginal benefit . Downs argues further that voters generally prefer to remain uninformed due to "rational ignorance ." </P> <P> Public choice scholarship can have more constructive applications . For instance, Elinor Ostrom's study of schemes for the regulation of common property resources resulted in the discovery of mechanisms for overcoming the tragedy of the commons . </P> <P> In deliberative democracy, the common good is taken to be a regulative ideal . In other words, participants in democratic deliberation aim at the realization of the common good . This feature distinguishes deliberative democracy from aggregative conceptions of democracy, which focus solely on the aggregation of preferences . In contrast to aggregative conceptions, deliberative democracy emphasizes the processes by which agents justify political claims on the basis of judgments about the common good . Epistemic democracy, a leading contemporary approach to deliberative democracy, advances a cognitivist account of the common good . </P> <P> One of the earliest references in Christian literature to the concept of the common good is found in the Epistle of Barnabas: "Do not live entirely isolated, having retreated into yourselves, as if you were already (fully) justified, but gather instead to seek together the common good ." </P>

List five of the things that could be considered as elements or aspects of the common good