Durable Constitutional Rules and Rent Seeking

Daniel Sutter

Public Finance Review, 2003, vol. 31, issue 4, 413-428

Abstract: Many constitutional political economists argue that the length of time constitutions remain in effect distinguishes constitutional politics from legislative politics. The author explores the role of constitutional durability in a repeated rent-seeking game. A general interest (e.g., consumers) in the game can lobby for a constitutional prohibition that prevents the rent-seeking contest from occurring. A durable constitution can reduce expected rent-seeking expenditures if constitutional politics occurs less frequently than legislative politics, stable rights to receive rents do not exist, and the general interest has a longer time horizon than rent seekers. Under these conditions, general interest lobbying for a constitutional prohibition denies transfers to future rent seekers unable to participate in politics today.

Date: 2003
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:pubfin:v:31:y:2003:i:4:p:413-428

DOI: 10.1177/1091142103031004004

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