Factors affecting the success of the election economy in developed and developing countries (Some examples about Turkey)

Abstract

Despite the risk of deterioration of the balance of budget and economy during election periods, the parties can go to election economy applications in order to remain in power depending on competition between themselves. Especially the incumbent uses fiscal policies for reelection purposes. Here the incumbent intends to secure reelection by maximizing his expected vote share at the next election and follow expansionary policies just before the elections and reverse the trend after the elections in order to smooth the negative effects of pre-election budget deficit. All these applications may cause deterioration of budget balances, budget deficit and economic instability leading to an increase in debt with a significant increase of public spending relative to tax revenues. But in terms of election economy not only the public policies but also the other factors (level of development, institutional quality and media access, level of democracy, political and economic crisis, constitutional rules, transparency etc.) play a key role which focus on the idea of heterogeneity across countries. In this study, factors affecting the success of the election economy in developed and developing countries are evaluated and some examples are given about Turkey’s 30-year period of elections from 1983 to 2015.

Keywords: election economy, ruling party, budget deficit, turkey