Politökonomische Erklärungen Zum Abbau Der Staatsverschuldung – Eine Erweiterte Perspektive

Abstract

Since the 1970s many industrial countries constantly accumulated public debt. This was a new phenomenon that had not been observed in the years before. Scientists tried to find explanations and analysed the development mainly from a public choice perspective. In the meantime signs occurred showing that the trend has reversed. Again, it was looked for explanations. Some authors tried to explain the observed shift towards a strategy of budget consolidation with changes in political ideologies and institutions. Others explained the phenomenon with the fiscal constraints which can be a long term consequence of high levels of public debt. However, some important questions remained open. This paper pursues the question whether the change in the public-debt-policy of politicians can be embedded into a broader framework. This broader framework should not only allow to analyze the development of public debt as a result of the debt-related policy of politicians in a narrow sense, but as a result of political decisions relating to government spending and taxation in general, i.e. from a public budget perspective in total.