Attitudes to public expenditure and their relationship to voting preferences

TLDR: However, these changes may be a function of the preferences the politicians feel the voters have rather than a reaction to the actual views and attitudes of the electorate as mentioned in this paper, and whether they are likely to affect the behaviour of the "floating voter" is open to doubt.

Abstract: THERE has been a great deal of interest shown in the growth of public expenditure among recent publications. This interest has mainly been concerned with investigations of the possible causes of this expansion and with predictions of future trends and their economic and political implications. It seems most likely that the total expenditure of a government is affected by a whole series of factors which interact with one another. Klein’ has argued that among the major influences are demographic changes in society (for example the growing number of retired and elderly), competitive pressures between government departments who may measure their success by their own expansion, and finally party political competition. I t is to the last of these factors that the present paper payi particular attention. While many would agree with Downs* that expenditures and taxation are a government’s principal policy tools it is not clear whether these can be used to maximize political support or that they have a major impact on voting behaviour. Observers and advocates of the political business cycle3 take the view that some of the interventions of government which modify the level of unemployment and the rate of price increases are carried out in an attempt to increase the administration’s popularity, especially among ‘floating voters’, when an election approaches. However, these changes may be a function of the preferences the politicians feel the voters have rather than a reaction to the actual views and attitudes of the electorate. This may also be true of changes in fiscal policy: few would disagree that income tax reductions are generally well received but the question of how people react to such changes in public expenditure are less clear cut; whether they are likely to affect the behaviour of the ‘floating voter’ is open to doubt. If public spending policies are in some way important to the general public there are at least two important criteria that have first to be satisfied: