Abstract
As we have seen in the preceding chapters, government interventions in the market tend to create distortions and excess profits, which special interests try to capture. There are also incentives for various groups in the economy to join forces and try to secure favours by persuading the state to introduce distorting policy measures.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Literature
The idea that those in power tend to maximize their own utility can be found in:
Brennan, Geoffrey and Buchanan, James M. (1983), ‘Predictive Power and the Choice of Regimes’, Economic Journal, Vol. 107.
John Stuart Mill’s observation on abuse of political power was republished in: Mill, John Stuart (1986), On Liberty. Longman Green, London.
Hume’s ideas are referred to by:
Doshi, Tilak (1996), ‘Chaining the Leviathan’, in Tan, Kevin and Lam Peng Er (eds), Managing Political Change in Singapore. The Elected Presidency. Routledge, London and New York.
For ideas on the shortcomings of the market economy and the need for government planning, see:
Srinivasan, T. N. (1985), ‘Neoclassical Political Economy, the State and Economic Development’, Asian Development Review, Vol. 3.
Cf. also:
Myrdal, Gunnar (1957), Economic Theory and Under-Developed Regions. Gerald Duckworth, London.
Problems of a planned economy are analysed in:
Kornai, János (1992), The Socialist System. The Political Economy of Communism. Clarendon Press, Oxford.
For a discussion on market failure and government failure, respectively, see:
Lal, Deepak (2000), The Poverty of Development Economics (2nd revised and expanded US edn). MIT Press, Cambridge, MA and London.
North’s view of the state as both a source and an impediment of growth can be found in:
North, Douglass C. (1979), ‘A Framework for Analyzing the State in Economic History’, Explorations in Economic History, Vol. 16.
The classification of states in different types originates in:
Lal, Deepak and Hla Myint (1996), The Political Economy of Poverty, Equity and Growth. Clarendon Press, Oxford.
The distinction between the contract based and the exploitation based state is made in:
North, Douglass C. (1981), Structure and Change in Economic History. W.W. Norton, New York and London.
The idea that all states are fundamentally predatory is presented in:
Levi, Margaret (1988), Of Rule and Revenue. University of California Press, Berkeley, CA.
The quotation on piracy is from:
North, Douglass C. (1997), The Process of Economic Change. UNU/WIDER, Working Papers, No. 128.
Bardhan’s analysis of special interests in game theoretical terms can be found in:
Bardhan, Pranab (1984), The Political Economy of Development in India. Basil Blackwell, Oxford.
The quality of the taxation system and its significance for how developmental the regime is, is emphasized by:
Aoki, Masahiko, Murdock, Kevin and Okuno-Fujiwara, Masahiro (1997), ‘Beyond the East Asian Miracle: Introducing the Market-Enhancing View’, in Aoki, Masahiko, Kim, Hyung-Ki and Okuno-Fujiwara, Masahiro (eds), The Role of Government in East Asian Development. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
The reasoning on the optimal size of the ruling clique is based on:
Lundahl, Mats (1985), ‘Government and Inefficiency in the Haitian Economy: The Nineteenth Century Legacy’, in Connolly, Michael B. and McDermott, John (eds), The Economics of the Caribbean Basin. Praeger, New York. Reprinted in Lundahl, Mats (1992), Politics or Markets. Essays on Haitian Underdevelopment Routledge, London and New York.
The section on the predation techniques is based mainly on:
Lundahl, Mats (1997), ‘Inside the Predatory State: The Rationale, Methods and Economic Consequences of Kleptocratic Regimes’, Nordic Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 24.
Lundahl, Mats (1997), ‘The Economics of Kleptocracy. Some Reflections on Under-development and the Predatory State’, in Roy, Kartik C., Blomqvist, Hans C. and Hossain, Iftekhar (eds), Development That Lasts. New Age International Publishers, New Delhi.
The example showing that it is easier to redistribute than to create new income is based on:
Olson, Mancur (1982), The Rise and Decline of Nations. Economic Growth, Stagflation and Social Rigidities. Yale University Press, New Haven, CT, and London.
Findlay’s and Wilson’s original model is published in:
Findlay, Ronald and Wilson, John D. (1987), ‘The Political Economy of the Leviathan’, in Razin, Assaf and Sadka, Efraim (eds), Economic Policy in Theory and Practice. Macmillan, London.
The significance of an external threat for economic development is discussed in:
Gunnarsson, Christer and Lundahl, Mats (1996), ‘The Good, the Bad and the Wobbly: State Forms and Third World Economic Performance’, in Lundahl, Mats and Ndulu, Benno J. (eds), New Directions in Development Economics. Routledge, London and New York.
Copyright information
© 2002 Hans C. Blomqvist and Mats Lundahl
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Blomqvist, H.C., Lundahl, M. (2002). The State as an Interest Group: The Economic Logic of Wielding Power. In: The Distorted Economy. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781403914347_12
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781403914347_12
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-42149-7
Online ISBN: 978-1-4039-1434-7
eBook Packages: Palgrave Economics & Finance CollectionEconomics and Finance (R0)