The Locke Institute
3 total works
Autocratic, Democratic, and Optimal Government - Fiscal Choices and Economic Outcomes
by William A. Niskanen
This book presents simple models of the major alternative types of political regimes, estimates of the parameters of these models, and quantitative estimates of the fiscal choices and economic outcomes of these regimes.
William Niskanen provides valuable analysis of the effects of the voting rule, the progressivity of the tax structure, and the length of the fiscal horizon in democratic governments and interesting insights of the effects of alternative regimes on policies, such as war and immigration, that affect the number of people subject to the regime.
Economists and political scientists who specialize in public finance, public choice, and the comparative analysis of political regimes will find much to engage them in this book.
William Niskanen Jr. has consistently argued that bureaucrats have personal objectives - that differ from those of both their political supervisors and the general public - which they further by use of their monopoly power. He develops his argument to contend that government budgets have become too large and should be curtailed. All of Professor Niskanen's major contributions to this field have been brought together in this one volume including his pioneering article on 'The Peculiar Economics of Bureaucracy', the full text of the book 'Bureaucracy and Representative Government' and his recent reassessment of the larger body of scholarship on the economics of bureaucracy.
Scholars, students and teachers of public economics will welcome this volume which, by making some of the key contributions in the field more widely accessible, will provoke discussion, debate and further research.
Policy Analysis and Public Choice - Selected Papers by William A. Niskanen
by William A. Niskanen
Policy Analysis and Public Choice is an important selection of articles written by William A. Niskanen over the last thirty years. The volume represents two quite different disciplines to which Niskanen has made a major contribution: policy analysis and public choice. It also includes his major essays on proprietary studies as well as many of his professional papers written for an academic audience.
Part I details Niskanen's important contribution to policy analysis. The diverse topics discussed include: defence spending and resource allocation, trade policy, crime and drug policy, and welfare and the culture of poverty. Part II is concerned with public choice and political economy, in particular the liberal economic order, bureaucracy, democratic government and progressive taxation. The volume also includes an autobiographical summary focusing on the complementary nature of his work on policy analysis and public choice, and a number of commentaries that reflect Niskanen's unique professional background and perspective.
Policy Analysis and Public Choice will be of special interest to those interested in public choice, public policy, political economy and political science.