Government Spending and Civic Engagement: Exploring the Role of Civil Society Participation and Voting in 28 Democracies
研究了2000至2024年间28个民主国家中，公民社会参与和选举投票两种公民参与形式对政府支出的不同影响，发现前者推高支出，后者降低支出。
ABSTRACT This study offers causal evidence on how distinct forms of civic engagement affect government spending across 28 democracies between 2000 and 2024. Its main innovation lies in disentangling the fiscal effects of two channels of engagement—civil society participation and electoral turnout—through an original identification strategy that exploits exogenous variation in collective versus self‐interested motives. Our findings reveal that civic engagement exerts distinct effects on public spending depending on the channel through which citizens participate in democratic life. On the one hand, stronger participation in civil society associations leads to higher government spending, consistent with a publicly spirited and collective mobilisation effect. On the other hand, greater electoral participation is associated with lower public expenditure, as more collective‐interested individuals distance themselves from the traditional electoral channel, and more self‐interested individuals ask for less public spending. We explore these underlying mechanisms, propose strategies to address key identification challenges and further consider the impact of civic engagement on environmental protection and green politics dynamics.