On the Political Economy of Public Service

A positive study of the intertemporal variation of public services and investment is undertaken, with special emphasis on the electoral period. The government is assumed to undertake public investments in order to maximise its utility over the current election period, subject to the constraint that such policy assures re-election. Government utility depends on various elements, to which the various parties assign different weights according to their ideology. Alternatively, it is assumed that governments want to maximise the time period during which they are in power. A major influence on public expenditures is exerted by bureaucracy, which is assumed to act incrementally and tends to maximise budgets.