Autocratic, Democratic, and Optimal Government: Fiscal Choices and Economic Outcomes

by William A. Niskanen Jr.

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.

160 pages, Paperback

First published February 28, 2004

About the author

William Arthur Niskanen Jr. (March 13, 1933, Bend, Oregon – October 26, 2011, Washington, D.C.) was an American economist noted as one of the architects of President Ronald Reagan's economic program and for his contributions to public choice theory. He was also a long-time chairman of the libertarian Cato Institute.