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

This text 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.

This work 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 efects of alternative regimes on policies, such as war and immigration, that affect the number of people subject to the regime.

On the choice of regime
models of government
the parameters
autocratic, democratic and optimal government
variatons on the democratic model
fiscal rules for a democracy
a constitutional approach to taxes and transfers
population issues
culture and instiutions.