Of course, that same public choice theory argues that contracting to private businesses is even more corrupt, since the extreme benefits to one firm versus the defused public interest means that democratic processes will be overwhelmed.
But maybe the Bechtel and Halliburton contracts are merely an exercise in proving the truth of their theories.
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Which is why, over on pen-l a while back, I asserted that what was once description has now become strategy/prescription for the neocons. PCT for looting at home and Realism IR for looting abroad, a collapse of the is/ought for them. There is even a book out that expands the rent-seeking model of Kreuger/Baghwati/Buchanan to embrace Schumpeter and [neo]Marxian theories of rents in order to explaing the possibility that rent creation and rent seeking, even under conditions of corruption, can be effficient and growth enhancing. "Rents, Rent Seeking and Economic Development: Theory & Evidence in Asia" ed. by Mushtaq Khan and Jomo K.S. [Cambridge U Press, 2000]
Ian