Staatsverschuldung und Demokratie. (With English summary.)

Most industrial countries have incurred a sharp rise in public debt over the past twenty years. This paper doubts the sole responsibility of economic factors for this fiscally detrimental trend. It emphasizes the crucial role of certain politico-economic mechanisms for the large budget deficits in representative democracies. The paper argues in favor of a constitutional reform if society is to be able to protect future generations from the adverse distributional consequences of public debt. Two reform proposals are derived. Copyright 1992 by WWZ and Helbing & Lichtenhahn Verlag AG