IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/pubcho/v44y1984i2p349-366.html

Democracy, creeping socialism, and ideological socialism in rent-seeking societies

Author

Listed:
  • Erich Weede

Abstract

Rent-seeking societies suffer from a serious distortion of incentives. Incentives to engage in distributional struggles, to seek contrived transfers are strong, but incentives to engage in productive work are too weak. Stagnation and some unemployment should be expected. Long lasting democracies within unchanged borders create a permissive environment for rent-seeking. The provision of rents very much depends on government. The stronger the governmental involvement in the economy, the higher social security spending, the more rents the government is likely to generate. Therefore, creeping socialism understood as increased government control of the economy should reinforce the rent-seeking society and the corresponding negative effects on growth and employment. Whether such creeping socialism is backed by ideological socialism or not should make little difference for growth or employment. These ideas have been tested and partially supported by a 19 nation sample of industrial democracies, using data from the sixties and seventies. By and large, the rent-seeking approach is fairly successful in explaining national differences in economic growth rates, but receives ambiguous support or less for unemployment. Olson's (1982, 1983) proposition about the negative impact of long lasting democracy within unchanged borders on economic growth is much better supported than the growth-retarding effects of government revenues or social security spending are. Copyright Martinus Nijhoff Publishers 1984

Suggested Citation

  • Erich Weede, 1984. "Democracy, creeping socialism, and ideological socialism in rent-seeking societies," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 44(2), pages 349-366, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:pubcho:v:44:y:1984:i:2:p:349-366
    DOI: 10.1007/BF00118768
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/BF00118768
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/BF00118768?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Robert D. Tollison, 1982. "Rent Seeking: A Survey," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(4), pages 575-602, November.
    2. Brittan, Samuel, 1978. "How British Is the British Sickness?," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 21(2), pages 245-268, October.
    3. World Bank, 1982. "World Development Report 1982," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 5965, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Weede, Erich, 1997. "Income inequality, democracy and growth reconsidered," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 13(4), pages 751-764, December.
    2. Michael Marlow, 1988. "Private sector shrinkage and the growth of industrialized economies: Reply," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 58(3), pages 285-294, September.
    3. Erich Weede, 1987. "A note on Pryor's criticism of Olson's rise and decline of nations," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 52(3), pages 215-222, January.
    4. Michael D. Krouse & Paul J. Zak, 2025. "Increasing support for economic freedom: responses in a representative sample of US adults," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 203(3), pages 649-663, June.
    5. Jac C. Heckelman & Bonnie Wilson, 2013. "Institutions, Lobbying, and Economic Performance," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(3), pages 360-386, November.
    6. Erich Weede, 1987. "Interaction effects in cross-national studies," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 21(4), pages 361-375, December.
    7. Erich Weede, 1990. "Ideas, Institutions and Political Culture in Western Development," Journal of Theoretical Politics, , vol. 2(4), pages 369-389, October.
    8. Michael Marlow & David Joulfaian, 1989. "The determinants of off-budget activity of state and local governments," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 63(2), pages 113-123, November.
    9. John McCallum & André Blais, 1987. "Government, special interest groups, and economic growth," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 54(1), pages 3-18, January.
    10. Erich Weede, 1991. "The impact of state power on economic growth rates in OECD countries," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 25(4), pages 421-438, November.
    11. Jac C. Heckelman, 2007. "Explaining the Rain: The Rise and Decline of Nations after 25 Years," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 74(1), pages 18-33, July.
    12. Michael Marlow, 1986. "Private sector shrinkage and the growth of industrialized economies," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 49(2), pages 143-154, January.
    13. Coates, Dennis & Heckelman, Jac C. & Wilson, Bonnie, 2010. "The political economy of investment: Sclerotic effects from interest groups," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 26(2), pages 208-221, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Erich Weede, 1986. "Rent Seeking, Military Participation, and Economic Performance in LDCs," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 30(2), pages 291-314, June.
    2. Bruno S. Frey & Paolo Pamini & Lasse Steiner, 2011. "What Determines The World Heritage List? An Econometric Analysis," CREMA Working Paper Series 2011-01, Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts (CREMA).
    3. Mikael Priks, 2005. "Optimal Rent Extraction in Pre-Industrial England and France – Default Risk and Monitoring Costs," CESifo Working Paper Series 1464, CESifo.
    4. Aysit Tansel & Ceyhan Ozturk & Erkan Erdil, 2021. "The Impact of Body Mass Index on Growth, Schooling, Productivity, and Savings: A Cross-Country Study," Koç University-TUSIAD Economic Research Forum Working Papers 2118, Koc University-TUSIAD Economic Research Forum.
    5. Wolfgang Maennig, 2004. "Korruption im internationalen Sport: ökonomische Analyse und Lösungsansätze," Vierteljahrshefte zur Wirtschaftsforschung / Quarterly Journal of Economic Research, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research, vol. 73(2), pages 263-291.
    6. Mwangi Kimenyi & William Shughart, 2010. "The political economy of constitutional choice: a study of the 2005 Kenyan constitutional referendum," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 21(1), pages 1-27, March.
    7. John R. Boyce & David M. Bruner, 2009. "Good Fences Make Good Neighbors: Endogenous Property Rights in a Game of Conflict," Working Papers 09-05, Department of Economics, Appalachian State University.
    8. John Burnett & Chris Paul & Allen Wilhite, 1997. "Political Campaigns as Rent-Seeking Games: Take the Money and Run," Public Finance Review, , vol. 25(5), pages 509-521, September.
    9. Tochukwu Timothy Okoli & Ajibola Rhoda Oluwafisayomi, 2019. "Investigating the Banking Sector Development Transmission Mechanism of Financial Development to Growth: Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA)," Journal of Economics and Behavioral Studies, AMH International, vol. 11(2), pages 120-131.
    10. Eduardo Zambrano, 1999. "Formal Models Of Authority," Rationality and Society, , vol. 11(2), pages 115-138, May.
    11. John Boatright, 2009. "Rent Seeking in a Market with Morality: Solving a Puzzle About Corporate Social Responsibility," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 88(4), pages 541-552, October.
    12. Yang, Yongzheng, 1995. "The Uruguay round trade liberalization and structural adjustment in developing Asia," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 6(4), pages 493-510.
    13. Enrico Colombatto, 2000. "An Explanation of the Dynamics of Protectionism," Open Economies Review, Springer, vol. 11(3), pages 279-293, July.
    14. John P. Formby & Paul D. Thistle & James P. Keeler, 1990. "Costs under Regulation and Deregulation: The Case of US Passenger Airlines," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 66(4), pages 308-321, December.
    15. Kaire Põder, 2010. "Credible commitment and cartel: the case of the Hansa merchant in the guild of late medieval Tallin," Baltic Journal of Economics, Baltic International Centre for Economic Policy Studies, vol. 10(1), pages 43-60, June.
    16. Rajeev Goel & Daniel Rich, 1989. "On the economic incentives for taking bribes," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 61(3), pages 269-275, June.
    17. Casey Carder Rockwell & David Crockett & Lenita Davis, 2020. "Mass incarceration and consumer financial harm: Critique of rent‐seeking by the carceral state," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(3), pages 1062-1081, September.
    18. Alessi Louis De, 1998. "Reflections on Coase, Cost, and Efficiency," Journal des Economistes et des Etudes Humaines, De Gruyter, vol. 8(1), pages 5-26, March.
    19. Stefan Weishaar, 2011. "Administrative Monopolies, State Aid, Barriers to Entry and Market Integration: Challenges for the Chinese Anti-Monopoly Law," Chapters, in: Michael Faure & Xinzhu Zhang (ed.), Competition Policy and Regulation, chapter 6, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    20. Kevin Vallier, 2019. "Containing Ideological Rent Seekers Expanding the Reach of Buchanan’s Constitutionalism," Homo Oeconomicus: Journal of Behavioral and Institutional Economics, Springer, vol. 36(1), pages 71-85, October.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:pubcho:v:44:y:1984:i:2:p:349-366. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.