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Has Leviathan Been Bound? A Theory of Imperfectly Constrained Government with Evidence from the States
Author(s) -
Caplan Bryan
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
southern economic journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.762
H-Index - 58
eISSN - 2325-8012
pISSN - 0038-4038
DOI - 10.1002/j.2325-8012.2001.tb00376.x
Subject(s) - leviathan (cipher) , victory , ideology , government (linguistics) , economics , politics , power (physics) , state (computer science) , positive economics , mathematical economics , neoclassical economics , political science , microeconomics , law , mathematics , physics , statistics , linguistics , philosophy , algorithm , quantum mechanics
This paper develops a formal theory that combines power‐maximizing “Leviathan” political parties with well‐defined imperfections in the political process. The model implies that both parties tend to make government larger as their likelihood of electoral victory increases. Empirical tests on state‐level data confirm this prediction. Racing the Leviathan hypothesis against alternative theories of party motivation indicates that both the Leviathan and the “contrasting ideologies” views have some degree of validity.