This book provides a comprehensive analysis of the distribution of public money and its political and societal implications. Drawing on evidence from central and eastern Europe, it offers an innovative insight into public responses to various strategies of public spending. Given that public expenditures are funded mainly from tax revenues, it also assesses public attitudes to politically motivated allocations of funds. The book seeks to identify how people evaluate the material benefits of funding in light of the fairness - or lack thereof - of the distribution process, whether popular acceptance of variations in public spending depends on the framing of the beneficiaries, and the implications of money allocation for political trust in political institutions.
Author(s): Peter Spáč, Petr Voda, Michal Tóth, Miroslav Nemčok, Lenka Hrbková
Series: Political Corruption and Governance
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 213
City: Cham
Acknowledgements
Contents
List of Figures
List of Tables
1 Introduction
Other Studies and Case Selection
Research Strategy
The Structure of the Book
References
2 Public Spending and the Response of the Public
Distributive Politics and Its Main Features
Research on Pork-Barrel Politics and Normative Aspects of the Phenomenon
Response of the Public
The Analytical Model
References
3 Pork-Barrel Politics in a Multi-Layer Perspective
National Funding Programmes
Regional Development Fund of the Ministry of Local Development
The ‘Involvement of Youth in the Life of the Community’ Subprogramme
The ‘Small Sacral Architecture’ Subprogramme
European Subsidies
Regional Funds in the Czech Republic
Conclusion
References
4 Benefits v. Fairness—Priorities in Public Attitudes
Introduction
Political Parties and Their Efforts to Stay in Power
Voters and Their Perception of the Earmarking of Public Resources
Hypotheses: Which Weighs More in Evaluation of Politicians, the Benefit of Redistribution or a Positive Sense of Fairness?
Data and Methods
Results
Resource Distribution on the Regional Level
Conclusion
References
5 The Shadow of Ethnicity: Rewarding the Others
Introduction
Ethnic In-Group Favouritism and Out-Group Bias
Distributive Politics and Ethnicity
Study 1: Elite Incentives for Ethnic Favouritism
Relations Between the Hungarian Minority and the Majority Population in Slovakia
Data and Methods
Results
Study 2: Public Opinion Biases in Welfare Policy
The Roma Ethnic Minority in Slovakia and the COVID-19 Pandemic
Data and Methods
Results
Support for Redistribution
Financial Support to the Regions
Conclusion
References
6 Can Trust Be Bought? The Effects of the EU Subsidies Given to Municipalities on Trust in Local, National, and European Authorities in the Czech Republic
Introduction
Why and How Trust Can Be Affected by the Distribution of Subsidies
Subsidies as the Improvement of Economic Conditions
Pork-Barrel Mechanics
Subsidies as an Indicator of Structural Problems
Contextual Constraints
Context
Data and Methods
Results
Conclusion
References
7 Conclusion
Summary of Main Findings
Implications for Further Research
References
Appendices
Appendix A1: Regression Models from Chapter 3
Appendix A2: Experiments from Chapter 4
Appendix A3: Experiments from Chapter 5
Appendix A4: Regression models from Chapter 6
Index
