This eBook was written by Andrew Pickering | James Rockey in October 2007 for Department of Economics, University of Bristol, 8 Woodland Road, Bristol BS8 1TN.We analyze the impact of ideology on the size of government. In a simple model the government sets redistribution and provision of public services according to the preferences of the median voter, for whom private consumption is a necessity. Ideology is de…ned on preferences for public services and the impact of ideology upon the size of government increases with mean income. In empirical work ideology is measured using data based on party manifestos. Much of the increases and divergence in government size observed across OECD countries can be explained by the interaction of ideology and mean income.
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