IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/ecinqu/v35y1997i3p464-79.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Autocratic, Democratic, and Optimal Government

Author

Listed:
  • Niskanen, William A

Abstract

All types of government face two major fiscal decisions: the level of government services and the average tax rate. This paper develops models of autocratic, democratic, and optimal government. The effects of alternative government structures are estimated using a common set of parameters based on U.S. data. Output and government services are higher in a democracy than in an autocracy, but the tax rate is lower. Output is even higher with an optimal government and both government services and the tax rate are lower. The relative outcomes in any government depend strongly on the fiscal horizon of those who govern. Copyright 1997 by Oxford University Press.

Suggested Citation

  • Niskanen, William A, 1997. "Autocratic, Democratic, and Optimal Government," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 35(3), pages 464-479, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:ecinqu:v:35:y:1997:i:3:p:464-79
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    To our knowledge, this item is not available for download. To find whether it is available, there are three options:
    1. Check below whether another version of this item is available online.
    2. Check on the provider's web page whether it is in fact available.
    3. Perform a search for a similarly titled item that would be available.

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Martin Roessler, 2019. "Political regimes and publicly provided goods: why democracy needs development," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 180(3), pages 301-331, September.
    2. Thomas Bernauer & Vally Koubi, 2013. "Are bigger governments better providers of public goods? Evidence from air pollution," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 156(3), pages 593-609, September.
    3. Michael Ross, 2006. "Is Democracy Good for the Poor?," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 50(4), pages 860-874, October.
    4. Fambeu, Ariel Herbert & Yomi, Patricia Tchawa, 2023. "Is democracy pro poor in Sub-Saharan Africa?," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 45(1), pages 10-30.
    5. Robert T. Deacon & Sarani Saha, 2006. "Public Good Provision by Dictatorship: A Survey," Chapters, in: Attiat F. Ott & Richard J. Cebula (ed.), The Elgar Companion to Public Economics, chapter 6, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    6. Casey B. Mulligan & Ricard Gil & Xavier Sala-i-Martin, 2004. "Do Democracies Have Different Public Policies than Nondemocracies?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 18(1), pages 51-74, Winter.
    7. Karim Khan & Anwar Shah, 2019. "Dictatorships, Patronage and Public Good Provision: Some Empirics," The Pakistan Development Review, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, vol. 58(3), pages 239-264.
    8. Abu S. Shonchoy, 2016. "Political Institutions, Governance, And Consumption Expenditure In Developing Countries: A Panel Data Analysis," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 34(4), pages 710-728, October.
    9. Jennis J. BISER & Jeffrey A. EDWARDS, 2012. "Civil Liberties and Access to Water: Analysis of 193 Countries," Applied Econometrics and International Development, Euro-American Association of Economic Development, vol. 12(1).
    10. Christoph Doerffel, 2021. "The Poverty Effect of Democratization: Disaggregating Democratic Institutions," Jena Economics Research Papers 2021-018, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena.
    11. Mulligan, Casey B. & Tsui, Kevin K., 2015. "Political entry, public policies, and the economy," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(3), pages 377-397.
    12. Mulligan Casey B & Gil Ricard & Sala-i-Martin Xavier X, 2010. "Social Security and Democracy," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 10(1), pages 1-46, March.
    13. Shonchoy, Abu S., 2010. "Determinants of government consumption expenditure in developing countries : a panel data analysis," IDE Discussion Papers 266, Institute of Developing Economies, Japan External Trade Organization(JETRO).
    14. Dörffel, Christoph & Freytag, Andreas, 2023. "The poverty effect of democratization," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 165(C).
    15. Ryan H. Murphy, 2019. "Governance and the dimensions of autocracy," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 30(2), pages 131-148, June.
    16. R. Coats, 2006. "Autocratic, Democratic, and Optimal Government: Fiscal Choices and Economic Outcomes," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 129(1), pages 233-237, October.
    17. De Luca, Giacomo & Litina, Anastasia & Sekeris, Petros G., 2015. "Growth-friendly dictatorships," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(1), pages 98-111.
    18. William H. Kaempfer & Anton D. Lowenberg & William Mertens, 2004. "International Economic Sanctions Against a Dictator," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 16(1), pages 29-51, March.
    19. Ramos, Antonio P. & Flores, Martin J. & Ross, Michael L., 2020. "Where has democracy helped the poor? Democratic transitions and early-life mortality at the country level," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 265(C).

    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:oup:ecinqu:v:35:y:1997:i:3:p:464-79. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Oxford University Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/weaaaea.html .

    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.