Political Transformations and Public Finances

Mark Dincecco is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Michigan. His research and teaching interests include political economy, economic and political history, comparative politics, and public finance. He holds a PhD in economics from the University of California, Los Angeles, and has published in several academic journals.

• 1. Weak and strong states in historical perspective; 2. Gaining force: from fragmentation to centralization; 3. Restricting power: from absolutism to limited government; 4. Political regimes and credit risk; 5. Two mechanisms; 6. Letting the data speak for themselves; 7. Estimating the fiscal effects of political regimes; 8. The institutional balance of modern fiscal states.

'Mark Dincecco has set a keystone atop the new literature seeking to explain the stark international differences in the modern rise of government financial capacity. We have long wondered whether government centralization and limitations on executive power have shaped the ability to wage war and to invest in modern economic growth. Previous authors have been forced to narrate within smaller, more constrained contexts, in search of easy natural experiments. Dincecco takes advantage of the very historical breaks that have constrained others. His structural-breaks perspective neatly captures both the unique and the general effects of institutional shocks. The book will command attention among all social scientists seeking a deeper understanding of the political and historical sources of government fiscal crises.' Peter H. Lindert, Distinguished Research Professor of Economics, University of California, Davis