Research report 2010 - Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies
An index of fiscal democracy
Authors
Streeck, Wolfgang; Mertens, Daniel
Departments
Max-Planck-Institut für Gesellschaftsforschung, Köln
Summary
Policy legacies, benefit claims and public debt are eating away at an increasing amount of tax revenues, constraining democratic policy-making and reducing the fiscal flexibility of the state to govern innovatively. An index of “fiscal democracy” can serve to compare the range of policy-making options open to Germany and the USA since the 1970s.