2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report
Comptence Matters: International Adjustment and Democratic Accountablity
| Project/Area Number |
25380148
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Multi-year Fund |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
Politics
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| Research Institution | The University of Tokyo |
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Principal Investigator |
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| Project Period (FY) |
2013-04-01 – 2016-03-31
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| Keywords | 先進民主国 / 国際政治経済 / 民主応答性 / 財政金融政策 / 政策適応 / 国際不況 / 銀行危機 |
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| Outline of Final Research Achievements |
Why do governments engage in fiscal restraint even during recessions in spite of increasing unemployment? This paper presents an explanation that focuses on the party leaders’ motives to obtain government power by winning elections. We posit that mainstream party leaders endorse fiscal restraint to indicate their economic competence, justifying it as something necessary to realize stable growth in a world of mobile capital, which is indicated by the rightwards move of the mainstream parties (of both the right and the left) in the post-recession elections. To enhance their reputation, government leaders also seek legislative alliances to pass austerity bills, resulting in policy changes that are closer to the legislative preference than the government one and in stronger dependence on expenditure cuts than politically divisive tax reforms. Our expectation is corroborated by panel analysis of 20 OECD countries and case studies of unexpected reform episodes.
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| Free Research Field |
政治経済
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