Poul Erik Mouritzen

Why people want something for nothing: The role of asymmetrical illusions

This article examines if and why mechanisms exist at the individual citizen level that may contribute to public sector growth – and whether such mechanisms can be altered through provision of information about the costs of public services. We test and find empirical support for the theory of fiscal illusion according to which citizens underestimate the costs of public services and therefore demand more public spending than if they had been fully informed. We also develop and find empirical support for a theory of asymmetrical illusions. This theory claims that producers and users of public services are more spending-minded than ordinary taxpayers – and that limited rationality contributes to this difference. However, the provision of informationabout the unit costs of public services can weaken these mechanisms of fiscal illusion and asymmetrical illusions. The test is based on tabular, logit, and experimental analysis of survey data from Odense, a Danish city with 175,000 inhabitants.

Reforming Local Governments in Times of Crisis: Values and Expectations of Good Local Governance in Comparative Perspective

A lot has been written about normative and theoretical expectations of local government. In this chapter we give the word to the citizens. How satisfied are they with the way local democracy works in their municipality and what do they expect from their municipalities in terms of facilities and services? With the Netherlands, Norway, Denmark, and Switzerland, our study covers four relatively well-off countries holding top positions in most overall assessments of democracy. We start with a general evaluation of the citizens’ satisfaction with their life in their municipality. In a next step we address the different ideas citizens have about the very essence of local democracy and local governance. The chapter ends with a discussion of varying degrees of satisfaction considering the different expectations.