Principled agents? : The political economy of good government / Timothy Besley.

Originally published: 2006.

1 COMPETING VIEWS OF GOVERNMENT; The issues; This book; Background; Economic Policy Making; Political Economy; Incentives and Selection in Politics; Concluding Comments; 2 THE ANATOMY OF GOVERNMENT FAILURE; Introduction; Three Notions of Government Failure; The Basic Model; Government Failure; Democratic Political Failures; A Dynamic Model; Government Failure in the Dynamic Model; Responses to Political Failure; Concluding Comments; 3 POLITICAL AGENCY AND ACCOUNTABILITY; Introduction; Elements of Political Agency Models; The Baseline Model; Extensions; Discussion; Concluding Comments; 4 POLITICAL AGENCY AND PUBLIC FINANCE; Introduction; The Model; Three Scenarios; Implications; Restraining Government; Debt and Deficits; Governments versus NGOs; Competence; Conclusions