Democracy and Welfare Economics

This is a fully revised and updated version of Hans van der Doel's Democracy and Welfare Economics.

Hans van den Doel (Author), Ben van Velthoven (Author)

9780521436373, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 22 July 1993

228 pages
21.7 x 14 x 2.3 cm, 0.325 kg

This is a fully revised and updated version of Hans van der Doel's Democracy and Welfare Economics. It presents the economic theory of political decision-making (otherwise knownn as new political economy, or public choice), providing students with an accessible and clear introduction to this important subject. The authors identify four different methods of decision-making by which the political process transforms the demands of individual citizens into government policy and public goods and services: negotiation, majority decision, representations and bureaucratic implementation. These are analysed, in turn, as independent decision-making models whose effectiveness is examined with reference to economic theory. A final chapter draws conclusions from this analysis, arguing that the size of the public sector is a result of forces that work in different directions at different stages of the political process.

Preface
1. Economics and politics
2. Welfare and welfare optimum
3. Negotiation
4. Majority decision
5. Representation
6. Implementation
7. The political process
Notes
References
Index.

Subject Areas: Political economy [KCP]