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POLITICAL PARTIES AND GOVERNMENT BEHAVIOUR
Author(s) -
Wren Colin
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
bulletin of economic research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.227
H-Index - 29
eISSN - 1467-8586
pISSN - 0307-3378
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-8586.1992.tb00539.x
Subject(s) - ideology , politics , inflation (cosmology) , economics , position (finance) , unemployment , government (linguistics) , political economy , term (time) , public economics , microeconomics , political science , macroeconomics , finance , law , linguistics , philosophy , physics , theoretical physics , quantum mechanics
The paper attempts to explain and identify differences in party political behaviour in office, in terms of the weight they attach to unemployment and inflation. Reasons are advanced to suggest that incumbents do not take‐up the median voter position, but instead pursue differentiated policies (i.e. make choices) which are both consistent with their known ideology (preferences) and with maximizing their share of the vote at the next election. The model is fitted with UK data, and the results are encouraging, providing some support for the notion that parties pursue politically‐motivated policies throughout their term of office and not just in the run‐up to elections.