Standard theoretical arguments suggest that republics ought to grow faster than monarchies and experience lower transitional costs following reforms. We employ a panel of 27 countries observed from 1820-2000 to explore whether regime types and institutional reforms have differential growth...

Betyder regeringsfarve noget for, hvor hurtigt den offentlige sektor vokser? Vi skitserer en Leviathan-inspireret model, hvor statens formål er at maksimere indkomst, og hvor implikationen er, at enhver velstandsvækst i samfundet derfor vil blive forsøgt ’spist’ af politikerne: Hvis der...

In almost all aspects of social life government intervention seems much more pervasive and intrusive today than ever before—at least in many of the Western countries. Governments seem year by year to consume still more resources and to regulate the details of the actions and interactions of...

Poul Schlüters (1982-1993) og Anders Fogh Rasmussens (2001-) regeringer har det til fælles, at de kom til med betydelig vind i ryggen, herunder opbakning til reformer. Noget tyder på, at begge kom til at skuffe forventningerne og i stedet medvirkede til at rykke vælgerne til venstre i det...

We investigate the possible explanations of variations in aggregate levels of participation in large-scale political demonstrations. A simple public choice inspired model is applied to data derived from the annual May Day demonstrations of the Danish labour movement and socialist parties taking...

When collective choices are made in more than one round and with dif¬ferent groups of decision-makers, so-called election inversions may take place, where each group have different majority outcomes. We identify two ver¬sions of such compound majority paradoxes specifically, but not...

The paper analyzes European integration from a constitutional economics perspective. It is argued that the use of the Prisoners' Dilemma as a description of the advantages of European integration is fallacious. If the situation is a PD, the solution is impossible; if it is not, it is unnecessary.

Political scientists and economists increasingly agree that institutions may influence economic growth, but there is little general agreement on what institutions tend to produce what consequences. We apply public choice insights for a theoretical analysis that may be termed “Madisonian”:...