Abstract
Rational choice models predict that political competition and political participa- tion have opposite eects on the size of government. We investigate these theories using data from a panel of 18 Latin American countries during the 20th century. Our research builds evidence for the prediction that reforms enhancing political competition tend to limit the size of government, while reforms increasing political participation tend to increase the size of government. Furthermore, we …nd that reforms which remove literacy requirements from franchise laws are associated with governmental expansion, while changes in women's surage laws have no impact on the size of government. Our …ndings demonstrate the empirical relevance of the distinction between political competition and participation.
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