Independent and competing agencies: An effective way to control government
Journal
Public Choice
ISSN
0048-5829
ISSN-Digital
1573-7101
Type
journal article
Date Issued
2007-01-01
Author(s)
Abstract
Controlling government is a primary focus of the politico-economic literature. Recently, various political institutions have been analyzed from this perspective, most importantly balanced budget rules, fiscal federalism, and direct democracy. However, one type of institution has been neglected so far: elected competitors to the government. Such institutional competition between the government and an independent agency can be found at the Swiss local level, where finance Commissions compete with the government. In some parts of Switzerland, local finance commissions can ex ante criticize government projects and bring alternative policy proposals onto the political agenda, which are then voted on by the citizens. Thus, they become strong competitors to the government. We econometrically investigate this institutional setting by comparing the 26 Swiss cantons. We find the power of the local finance commission to have an economically relevant, statistically significant and robust negative effect on the tax burden and on public expenditures.
Language
English
Keywords
Political economics - Political control institution - Institutional competition - Audit court
HSG Classification
contribution to scientific community
Refereed
No
Publisher
Springer
Publisher place
Dordrecht
Volume
130
Number
1/2
Start page
79
End page
98
Pages
20
Subject(s)
Division(s)
Eprints ID
70883