Political Budget Cycles and the Organization of Political Parties

This paper introduces a new explanation for political budget cycles: politicians have stronger incentives to increase spending around elections in the presence of younger political parties. Previous research has shown that political budget cycles a...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors:	Hanusch, Marek, Keefer, Philip
Format:	Policy Research Working Paper
Language:	English en_US
Published:	World Bank, Washington, DC 2014
Subjects:	BUDGET CYCLE FISCAL POLICY POLITICAL PARTY COLLECTIVE ACTION ELECTION AMDINISTRATION BUSINESS CYCLE BUSINESS CYCLE FLUCTUATIONS BUSINESS CYCLES BUSINESS CYCLESGOVERNMENT SPENDING CAMPAIGN EXPENDITURES CAMPAIGN FINANCING CITIZEN ACTION CONSUMPTION DATA CONSUMPTION EXPENDITURE CONSUMPTION EXPENDITURES CONSUMPTION MEASURE DEMOCRATIC ACCOUNTABILITY DEMOCRATIZATION ECONOMIC GROWTH ELECTION ELECTION RESULT ELECTION TIME ELECTIONEERING ELECTIONS EXPENDITURE EXPENDITURE DATA ATA EXPENDITURES FINAL CONSUMPTION EXPENDITURE GDP PER CAPITA GENERAL GOVERNMENT FINAL CONSUMPTION EXPENDITURE GOVERNMENT CONSUMPTION EXPENDITURE GOVERNMENT EXPENDITURE GOVERNMENT FINAL CONSUMPTION EXPENDITURE GOVERNMENT INSTITUTIONS GOVERNMENT SPENDING LEGISLATIVE SEATS NATIONAL GOVERNMENTS NATIONAL INCOME NEW DEMOCRACIES PARTY LEADERS PARTY POSITIONS POLITICAL ACTORS POLITICAL BUSINESS CYCLE POLITICAL CANDIDATES POLITICAL CONTROL PUBLIC SPENDING REAL ECONOMIC GROWTH REAL GDP SUBNATIONAL SPENDING TOTAL EXPENDITURES BUSINESS CYCLE POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS POLITICAL PARTIES POLITICAL SCIENCE POLITICAL VARIABLES PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION PUBLIC OPINION NATIONAL SPENDING VOTER VOTERS
Online Access:	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2013/10/18400406/political-budget-cycles-organization-political-parties http://hdl.handle.net/10986/16869

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Summary:	This paper introduces a new explanation for political budget cycles: politicians have stronger incentives to increase spending around elections in the presence of younger political parties. Previous research has shown that political budget cycles are larger when voters are uninformed about politician characteristics and when politicians are less credible. The effects of party age can be traced to organizational differences between younger and older parties that also affect voter information and politician credibility. Parties organized around particular individuals, rather than around policy labels or a party machine, are less likely to survive the departure of party leaders, to adopt organizational attributes that promote voter information and political credibility, and to limit political budget cycles. Previous research has also shown larger political budget cycles in younger democracies. Evidence presented here indicates that party age accounts for this effect.

Political Budget Cycles and the Organization of Political Parties

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