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Contractual Democracy

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  • Gersbach, Hans

Abstract

Although they would yield social benefits, some political projects may not be implemented in democracies. Prominent examples are the reform of European labour markets, the reduction of government debt or the reduction of greenhouse gases. We suggest introducing political contracts to make liberal democracy more efficient without altering its fundamental values. Furthermore, such contracts can foster the public's trust in politics. We discuss four archetypes of political contracts and ways of implementing them. We outline the certification and control procedures for political contracts and address the major concerns arising with regard to contractual democracy.

Suggested Citation

  • Gersbach, Hans, 2008. "Contractual Democracy," CEPR Discussion Papers 6763, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    • Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:6763
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    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Hans Gersbach, 2014. "Campaigns, political mobility, and communication," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 161(1), pages 31-49, October.
    2. Hans Gersbach, 2020. "History-Bound Reelections," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 12(3), pages 33-75, August.
    3. Hans Gersbach, 2014. "Government Debt-Threshold Contracts," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 52(1), pages 444-458, January.
    4. Hans Gersbach & Markus Müller, 2017. "Higher bars for incumbents and experience," Journal of Theoretical Politics, , vol. 29(3), pages 492-513, July.
    5. Gersbach, Hans & Schneider, Maik T. & Tejada, Oriol, 2019. "Coalition preclusion contracts and moderate policies," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 28-46.
    6. Peter Bernholz, 2012. "From The Calculus of Consent to extended logrolling, negative externalities, and the Coase theorem," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 152(3), pages 265-271, September.
    7. Hans Gersbach & Oriana Ponta, 2017. "Unraveling short- and farsightedness in politics," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 170(3), pages 289-321, March.
    8. Carlos Seixas & Diogo Lourenço, 2024. "On the optimality of policy choices in the face of biased beliefs, retrospective voting and the down-up problem," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 63(2), pages 299-321, September.
    9. Hans Gersbach, 2017. "Co-voting democracy," Economics of Governance, Springer, vol. 18(4), pages 337-349, November.
    10. Hans Gersbach & Philippe Muller & Oriol Tejada, 2015. "Costs of Change, Political Polarization, and Re-election Hurdles," CER-ETH Economics working paper series 15/222, CER-ETH - Center of Economic Research (CER-ETH) at ETH Zurich.
    11. Gersbach, Hans & Tejada, Oriol & Muller, Philippe, 2016. "The Effects of Higher Re-election Hurdles and Costs of Policy Change on Political Polarization," CEPR Discussion Papers 11375, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    12. Johannes Gerd Becker & Hans Gersbach, 2013. "A Theory of Threshold Contracts," CER-ETH Economics working paper series 13/182, CER-ETH - Center of Economic Research (CER-ETH) at ETH Zurich.
    13. Gersbach, Hans & Schneider, Maik T., 2012. "Tax contracts, party bargaining, and government formation," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 64(2), pages 173-192.
    14. Lektauers Arnis & Romanovs Andrejs & Cumiks Aleksejs & Butenko Vitalijs A. & Potrjasaev Semjon, 2013. "Crowdsourcing-based Technique for the Development of Sociotechnical System with Application to the Monitoring of Natural and Technological Objects," Information Technology and Management Science, Sciendo, vol. 16(1), pages 106-113, December.
    15. Volker Britz & Afsoon Ebrahimi & Hans Gersbach, 2022. "Incentive pay for policy‐makers?," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 24(2), pages 259-275, April.
    16. Hans Gersbach, 2022. "New Forms of Democracy," CESifo Working Paper Series 10134, CESifo.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Contractual democracy; Elections; Political contracts;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D7 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making
    • H1 - Public Economics - - Structure and Scope of Government
    • H4 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods
    • K1 - Law and Economics - - Basic Areas of Law

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