culture, democracy, happiness, institutions, utility, I31, H10, D02,

No abstract

SUMMARYvol nd regionl governments ount for n importnt shre of totl government spending ndD given the deentrliztion trend in yigh ntionsD this is likely to inreseF row should this spending e governedc his rtile rgues tht diret demory is est suited to orgnize deisionEmking t the stte nd lol levelF o support thisD we present the min theoretil rguments on why nd how referend nd inititives ffet fisl poliy outomesF he si rgument onerns voter ontrolF nder representtive demoryD itizens only hve diret ontrol t eletion timeF ith referend nd inititivesD itizens n seletively ontrol their representtives on speifi poliies whenever they devite suffiiently from itizens preferenesF es resultD fisl poliy outomes re likely to more losely reflet voter preferenesF e empirilly test this on wiss dt sine witzerlnd provides nturl lortory for lol governneF he governne strutures of wiss ntons nd lolities with respet to fisl issues rnge from lssi prlimentry demory to pure diret demoryD nd n importnt prt of spending nd txtion is ontrolled t these levelsF peifillyD we estimte n eonometri model of fisl ehviour using dt from IWVT to IWWU for the PT wiss ntonsD nd IWWH dt on IQR lol ommunitiesF st is shown tht mndtory referend on fisl issues t oth levels hve dmpening effet on expenditure nd revenueD nd t the lol level lso on puli detF gomining this with existing empiril evidene leds to reltively unontested resultD nmely tht elements of diret demory re ssoited with sounder puli finnesD etter eonomi performne nd higher stisftion of itizensF vrs F peld nd qehrd uirhg× ssner ionomi oliy ytoer PHHI rinted in qret fritin # giD giD wrD PHHIF v o l f i s l r e f e r e n d h e d m p e n i n g e f f e t o n t x e s n d s p e n d i n g he politil eonomy of diret legisltionX diret demory nd lol deisionEmking Lars P. Feld and Gebhard Kirchg× assner Universit× at St Gallen and Swiss Institute for International Economics and Applied Economic Research (SIAW-HSG)IF sxyhgsyx hiret demory is gining momentum t the lol nd regionl level just s mny yigh ntions re deentrlizing deisionEmkingD espeilly fisl deisionsD to suE ntionl levels of governmentF sn the D lol nd stteElevel inititives nd referend re inresingly ommonF he stte of wississippi introdued populr inititives in its onstitution in IWWQD nd similr moves re eing onsidered in xew terseyD hode sslnd nd exsF sn gliforniD the stte in whih inititives re most frequently usedD RW inititives were lredy held from IWWH to IWWT while only nine inititives were held in the IWTHsF imilr moves hve lso een mde in iuropeF et the qermn stte nd lol levelsD the hurdles to use diret legisltion in the form of signture requirements nd quorums hve een signifintly redued sine IWVWF he xetherlnds hs lso disussed the introdution of diret demory t the lol levelF I he ionomist summed up this trend in its reent survey on demoryX the next ig hnge in humn ffirs will proly not e mtter of eonomisD or eletronisD or militry sieneY it will e hnge in the supposedly humdrum world he uthors would like to thnk ihrd fldwinD ui uonrdD wihel vehnerD tn...

In the past there was hardly any use of economic instruments in environmental policy, mainly command and control measures were used. More recently, ecological taxes as well as tradable permits became more popular and voluntary agreements have been implemented. Using the Public Choice approach we ask for the reasons of this wider acceptance of economic instruments. We conclude that the use of market based instruments in environmental policy has not increased very much and their impact on the actual situation is still rather low, but there is hope of a at least some increase in the future.