Conservative Mobilization and Fiscal Policies

Abstract

The two conservative parties in Norway, the old Conservative Party and the younger Progressive Party increased their electoral support from 23 percent in 1975 to 34 percent in the election of 1987. The electoral mobilization by these conservative parties was mainly based on an ideologically inspired rhetoric of reduced government spending and corresponding tax reductions. With the benefit of hindsight, it may be argued that these were policies to which the two parties did not live up. Whatever their political strength in the local arena, they were unable to reduce local government income taxes. But when analysing other fiscal strategies available to local governments we do find differences related to political strength, even if the findings are not always as expected. Municipalities dominated by the conservatives are run on the principle of families paying the actual costs of having children in public day‐care institutions. But so are socialist‐dominated municipalities. Conservative and socialist municipalities tend to subsidize fees for home‐help services for the elderly. The main fiscal source of the conservatives is fees and charges on technical services used by every household and paid according to costs. The watershed between socialist and conservative parties appears as we analyse the use of property tax ‐ a tax used much more frequently by socialist than by conservative and centrist parties.

Political characteristics, institutional procedures and fiscal performance: Panel data analyses of Norwegian local governments, 1991–1998

“…Moreover, Borge (1995) demonstrates how municipal councils dominated by left‐wing parties contribute to increase fee income and thereby increase public expenditure locally. Hanssen and Pettersen (1995) reveal that municipalities where right‐wing parties predominate almost always have the lowest property tax. Thus, it seems reasonable to place local parties along a right‐left dimension.…”