The New Politics of Deficits
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4290489 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Paul E Peterson (0000-0001-8073-5186, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1985 |
| Volume | 100 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 575-601 |
| Publication date | 1985-12-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Political Science Quarterly (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0032-3195 • E-ISSN: 1538-165X |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.2307/2151542 |
| OpenAlex | W2064203274 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 10 |
The Reagan administration's fiscal policies represent the boldest, yet most problematic, of all its efforts to transform the domestic agenda. By tolerating deficits on a scale unprecedented in peacetime history, the administration has been able to pursue simultaneously its commitment to a stronger defense and its pledge to cut the federal income tax rate. By tolerating these deficits, it has been able to create an austere political climate in which proposed cuts, not expected increments, focus the discussions of federal domestic programs. But by tolerating deficits of great magnitude, the administration has jeopardized the Republican party's reputation for fiscal responsibility and, perhaps more important, may have created a precarious political context in which any economic recession could have disastrous electoral consequences for the government in power. Much has been written about the possible economic consequences of current fiscal deficits. But little systematic attention has been given to the political context that has produced them. To the extent that analysts have considered the political causes of current deficits, they have depended on the cliche that politicians like to confer benefits immediately but postpone costs -at least until after the next election. 1 While this observation contains more than a grain of truth, it is a verity that applies to many times and places. It does not account for the peculiar propensity to engage in deficit financing that currently plagues American politics. To the extent that thinking about deficits has gone beyond a general suspicion
Administration (probate law) · Context (archaeology) · Economics · Government (linguistics) · Keynesian economics · Peacetime · Pledge · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Recession · Fiscal Policies and Political Economy · Law
Is There a Bias Toward Excess in U.S. Government Budgets or Deficits
The Political Economy of Supplemental Appropriations
Partisan and Ideological Sources of Fiscal Deficits in the United States
Both Guns and Butter, or Neither
The Political Economy of American Strategy
The Politics of Impoundments
Influences on Deficit Spending in Industrialized Democracies
Differentiating Mixed-Member Electoral Systems
District magnitude, personal votes, and government expenditures
Political Parties at War
| Unique citing works | 10 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,27 |
| Citation span | 1989 - 2013 (25) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 6 |