On the limits of democracy

In this article, we extend the analysis of Gersbach (2009) and explore the limits of democratic constitutions to achieve first-best outcomes. We establish the most general possibility result and we illustrate the efficiency gains of flexible majority rules by examples. We show that no first-best constitution exists if there is uncertainty regarding the size of losses and benefits from public project

Representativeness of German parties and trade unions with regard to public opinion

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