Theories explaining government size and its consequences are of two varieties. The first portrays government as a provider of public goods and a corrector of externalities. The second associates larger governments with bureaucratic inefficiency and special-interest-group influence. What...

The authors develop a theory of smoke screening (ambiguity) as a means of maximizing political support when the voters' evaluation of a candidate depends on the quality of information they receive, on their ability to obtain and process relevant information, and finally on the candidate's...