Explanations for the growth of the government that imply that it always grows are obviously destroyed by the early period histories. Something must have happened to change the way in which we respond to our governments or our governments respond to us. I have offered Bismarckism as a possible...

This paper analyses the effects in terms of size and volatility of government revenue and spending on growth in OECD and EU countries. The results of the paper suggest that both variables are detrimental to growth. In particular, looking more closely at the effect of each component of government...