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”:...

The note briefly outlines a new model for the explanation of US presidential elections, founded on (a) recent economic growth and (b) a measure of what may be called “’the cost of ruling”. The former is based in changes in real disposable income for the period following a mid-term...

The article examines the ideological and political-economic impact of the strategies of the Danish Prime Ministers Anders Fogh Rasmussen and Lars Løkke Rasmussen as leaders of the liberal/conservative coalition governments 2001-2011.

The paper sketches an argument for a classical liberal view of the "natural rights" of life, liberty, property and the pursuit of happiness, albeit one based in a semi-"rule-utilitarian" approach, where the defense is based in a "hypothetical imperative" and circumscribed by what social science...