by Jim Rose in income redistribution, Public Choice, Sam Peltzman Tags: growth in government

Sam Peltzman argues that:

governments grow where groups which share a common interest in that growth and can perceive and articulate that interest become more numerous.

Growth in the size of governmental is driven by the evolving demands of voters. Peltzman maintains that:

the levelling of income differences across a large part of the population . . . has in fact been a major source of the growth of government in the developed world over the last fifty years [because this levelling created] a broadening of the political base that stood to gain from redistribution generally and thus provided a fertile source of political support for expansion of specific programs. At the same time, these groups became more able to perceive and articulate that interest . . this simultaneous growth of “ability” served to catalyse politically the spreading economic interest in redistribution

Growing income equality, which was a result of the Industrial Revolution and modern economic growth, caused the size of government to then grow. The reduction in inequality preceded the rise of the welfare state in the mid-20th century.