Political institutions, voter turnout, and policy outcomes

This paper tests whether constitutions directly affect economic outcomes. By introducing citizens' political participation as the driving force connecting institutions to policy outcomes, we empirically show that voter turnout is the channel through which forms of government affect economic pol...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:European Journal of Political Economy 2012-06, Vol.28 (2), p.162-173
Main Authors: Fumagalli, Eileen, Narciso, Gaia
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Citizen Participation
Constitution
Constitutions
Economic Policy
Electoral rule
Electorate
Expenditures
Form of government
Participation
Policy outcomes
Political systems
Presidentialism
Presidents
Public expenditure
Voter participation
Voter Turnout
Voters
Voting behaviour
Welfare State
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:This paper tests whether constitutions directly affect economic outcomes. By introducing citizens' political participation as the driving force connecting institutions to policy outcomes, we empirically show that voter turnout is the channel through which forms of government affect economic policies. We provide evidence of the existence of two relationships. First, presidential regimes appear to be associated with lower voter participation in national elections. Second, higher voter participation induces an increase in government expenditure, total revenues, welfare state spending, and budget deficit. We conclude that forms of government affect policy outcomes only through voter turnout. ► Relationship between forms of government, voter turnout and policy outcomes. ► Lower voter turnout in presidential regimes. ► Larger government, welfare state and budget deficits when turnout is higher. ► Forms of government affect policies through voter participation at general elections.
ISSN:0176-2680
1873-5703
DOI:10.1016/j.ejpoleco.2011.10.002