This paper examines the development of general government finance and employment within fifteen industrialized democracies during the post-World War II era. Annual time series, extending, where possible, from 1950 through 1988, are analyzed (as well as detailed in the appendix to the paper)....

This paper provides a model-based account of the forces shaping the dynamics of government spending in the industrialized democracies over the past few decades. The principle argument is that both short-term and long-term forces have been at work in the evolution of government spending in these...

An effort is made to draw out some of the fundamental distinctions amongst the many approaches to explaining government resource allocation behavior. The "relative dominance of the environment" and "decision making imagery" are suggested as two principal organizing dimensions. A brief survey of...