Pork‐Barrel Politics in Postwar Italy, 1953–94

Bibliographic Data

ID6229554
AuthorsMiriam A Golden, Miriam Golden (0000-0002-3408-1107, University of California System), Lucio Picci (0000-0002-0491-1763, University of Bologna)
Year2008
Volume52
Issue2
Pages268-289
Publication date2008-04-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Journal of Political Science (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0092-5853 • E-ISSN: 1540-5907
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.1540-5907.2007.00312.x
OpenAlexW2977870595
LanguageEN
Citations received105
References cited58

This article analyzes the political determinants of the distribution of infrastructure expenditures by the Italian government to the country's 92 provinces between 1953 and 1994. Extending implications of theories of legislative behavior to the context of open‐list proportional representation, we examine whether individually powerful legislators and ruling parties direct spending to core or marginal electoral districts and whether opposition parties share resources via a norm of universalism. We show that when districts elect politically more powerful deputies from the governing parties, they receive more investments. We interpret this as indicating that legislators with political resources reward their core voters by investing in public works in their districts. The governing parties, by contrast, are not able to discipline their own members of parliament sufficiently to target the parties' areas of core electoral strength. Finally, we find no evidence that a norm of universalism operates to steer resources to areas when the main opposition party gains more votes

Democracy · Economics · Legislature · Norm (philosophy · Opposition (politics · Parliament · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Proportional representation · Universalism · Economic Policies and Impacts · Fiscal Policies and Political Economy · Law · Local Government Finance and Decentralization · Public Administration

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