Public Finance and the Political Process

Holcombe presents theoretical models, melds theory and empirical work, and jux­taposes economics and political science. Fur­ther, he provides insights into such concepts as agenda control, points out the advantages of incumbency, explains government as a natural monopoly, establishes an updating of the social contract, and examines the virtues of common law in contrast to statutory law.

In his final chapters, Holcombe provides a foundation upon which the preceding chap­ters are logically built. From his analysis, itappears that there is an approximate corre­spondence between voter preferences and political outcomes, as depicted by a median voter model, but that for many reasons re­source allocation through the public sector is considerably less efficient than through the private sector.