The Politics of Public Spending

This book provides a comprehensive analysis of the distribution of public money and its political and societal implications. Drawing on evidence from central and eastern Europe, it offers an innovative insight into public responses to various strategies of public spending. Given that public expenditures are funded mainly from tax revenues, it also assesses public attitudes to politically motivated allocations of funds. The book seeks to identify how people evaluate the material benefits of funding in light of the fairness - or lack thereof - of the distribution process, whether popular acceptance of variations in public spending depends on the framing of the beneficiaries, and the implications of money allocation for political trust in political institutions.

Auteur

Peter Spác is Associate Professor at the Department of Political Science, Masaryk University, Czech Republic. Petr Voda is Assistant Professor at the Department of Political Science, Masaryk University, Czech Republic.
Michal Tóth is Assistant Professor at the Department of Political Science, Masaryk University, Czech Republic.
Miroslav Nemcok is Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Political Science, University of Oslo, Norway. Lenka Hrbková is Assistant Professor at the Department of Political Science, Masaryk University, Czech Republic.

Contenu

1. Introduction.- 2. Public Spending and the Response of the Public.- 3. Pork-barrel Politics in a Multi-layer Perspective.- 4. Benefits v. Fairness Priorities in Public Attitudes.- 5. The Shadow of Ethnicity Rewarding the Others.- 6. Can Trust Be Bought? The Effects of the EU Subsidies Given to Municipalities on Trust in Local, National and European Authorities in the Czech Republic.- 7. Conclusion.