The Politics of Public Spending: Actors, Motivations, and Public Responses

Description

This book provides a comprehensive analysis of the distribution of public money and its political and societal implications. Drawing on evidence from central and eastern Europe, it offers an innovative insight  into public responses to various strategies of public spending. Given that public expenditures are funded mainly from tax revenues, it also assesses public attitudes to politically motivated allocations of funds. The book seeks to identify how people evaluate the material benefits of funding in light of the fairness - or lack thereof - of the distribution process, whether popular acceptance of variations in public spending depends on the framing of the beneficiaries, and the implications of money allocation for political trust in political institutions.  Acknowledgements Contents List of Figures List of Tables 1 Introduction Other Studies and Case Selection Research Strategy The Structure of the Book References 2 Public Spending and the Response of the Public Distributive Politics and Its Main Features Research on Pork-Barrel Politics and Normative Aspects of the Phenomenon Response of the Public The Analytical Model References 3 Pork-Barrel Politics in a Multi-Layer Perspective National Funding Programmes Regional Development Fund of the Ministry of Local Development The ‘Involvement of Youth in the Life of the Community’ Subprogramme The ‘Small Sacral Architecture’ Subprogramme European Subsidies Regional Funds in the Czech Republic Conclusion References 4 Benefits v. Fairness—Priorities in Public Attitudes Introduction Political Parties and Their Efforts to Stay in Power Voters and Their Perception of the Earmarking of Public Resources Hypotheses: Which Weighs More in Evaluation of Politicians, the Benefit of Redistribution or a Positive Sense of Fairness? Data and Methods Results Resource Distribution on the Regional Level Conclusion References 5 The Shadow of Ethnicity: Rewarding the Others Introduction Ethnic In-Group Favouritism and Out-Group Bias Distributive Politics and Ethnicity Study 1: Elite Incentives for Ethnic Favouritism Relations Between the Hungarian Minority and the Majority Population in Slovakia Data and Methods Results Study 2: Public Opinion Biases in Welfare Policy The Roma Ethnic Minority in Slovakia and the COVID-19 Pandemic Data and Methods Results Support for Redistribution Financial Support to the Regions Conclusion References 6 Can Trust Be Bought? The Effects of the EU Subsidies Given to Municipalities on Trust in Local, National, and European Authorities in the Czech Republic Introduction Why and How Trust Can Be Affected by the Distribution of Subsidies Subsidies as the Improvement of Economic Conditions Pork-Barrel Mechanics Subsidies as an Indicator of Structural Problems Contextual Constraints Context Data and Methods Results Conclusion References 7 Conclusion Summary of Main Findings Implications for Further Research References Appendices Appendix A1: Regression Models from Chapter 3 Appendix A2: Experiments from Chapter 4 Appendix A3: Experiments from Chapter 5 Appendix A4: Regression models from Chapter 6 Index