Do Democracies Have Different Public Policies than Nondemocracies?

Estimates of democracy's effect on the public sector are obtained from comparisons of 142 countries over the years 1960–90. Based on three tenets of voting theory – that voting mutes policy preference intensity, political power is equally distributed in democracies, and the form of voting proce...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of economic perspectives 2004-01, Vol.18 (1), p.51-74
Main Authors: Mulligan, Casey B., Gil, Ricard, Xavier Sala-i-Martin
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Capital punishment
Censorship
Communism
Comparative analysis
Data analysis
Decision making
Democracy
Demography
Dictators
Economic theory
Economics
Effects
Efficiency
Game theory
Gross domestic product
Income redistribution
Manycountries
Middle age
Military spending
Payroll taxes
Personal income taxes
Policy making
Political leadership
Political power
Political regimes
Political systems
Public interest
Public policy
Public sector
Social policy
Symposium: Political Economy
Voting
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Summary:Estimates of democracy's effect on the public sector are obtained from comparisons of 142 countries over the years 1960–90. Based on three tenets of voting theory – that voting mutes policy preference intensity, political power is equally distributed in democracies, and the form of voting processes is important—we expect democracy to affect policies that redistribute, or economically favor the political leadership, or enhance efficiency. We do not find such differences. Instead democracy is correlated with policies that limit competition for public office. Alternative modeling approaches emphasize the degree of competition, and deemphasize the form or even existence of voting processes.
ISSN:0895-3309
1944-7965
DOI:10.1257/089533004773563430