POLITICAL EFFICIENCY AND EQUAL-PROTECTION OF THE LAW

In many settings, economic efficiency in law enforcement appears to re quire differential enforcement of the law. For example, as shown in th e paper, crime prone populations warrant stronger sanctions than less crime prone populations if costly sanctions are to be meted out in an efficient manner. However, narrow economic analysis of efficient sanct ions attributes an efficiency to modern democratic governments which c an not be easily justified by analysis or experience. This paper demon strates that constraining majority coalitions to write laws consistent with the principle of equal protection generally yields more desirabl e outcomes than obtained when majority coalitions are permitted to dis criminate in an arbitrary manner. The efficiency case for equality bef ore the law is based on political considerations rather than economic ones per se.