The Growth of Government and the Rise of Pressure Groups

Abstract

Redistributional policy is often seen as an important factor in explaining the growth in the size of government that has been observed in this century.¹⁾ Several factors explaining the expansion in redistributional activities, can be thought of. On the one extreme, one has pure altruism in combination with some ideologically motivated concept of justice leading to a redistribution in favor of the poor; on the other extreme, pure self-interest in combination with the prevailing politico-economical system leads to redistribution in favor of the strong and influential²⁾.

This work is part of a research project, ”Transfers, subsidies, and efficiency in the policy of redistribution”, financed by the Norwegian Research Council for Social Sciences and the Humanities (NAVF). It was written while the author, with financial support in the form of a Ruhrgas stipend from the Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft, was visiting the Sonderforschungsbereich 5, Fakultät für Volkswirtschaftslehre und Statistik, Universität Mannheim. This support from the Stifterverband and from the Sonderforschungsbereich 5 is gratefully acknowledged.

The essay has benefitted from comments from and discussions with R. Pethig, J.-M. Graf von der Schulenburg, and L. Thorlund-Petersen. Also this is acknowledged with gratitude.