Governments can deliberately leave debt to constrain their successors’ spending

Evidence

Given politicians’ time-inconsistent preferences, “the (level of the) public debt is the state variable that gives the current government an instrument to control the future government.” The short version of this complementary story is that conservatives should collect less in taxes and leave more debt so that any liberal government coming to power will be constrained. — Mark Blyth, Austerity, 454

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Mattei’s work on austerity as a political weapon deployed by one class/faction against another, and echoes strategic-debt theory in political economy. — connects to: The Bank of France weaponized debt rollover refusal to force austerity on left governments — Mark Blyth, Austerity: The History of a Dangerous…, 547; Neoliberal crisis responses deliberately undermine state fiscal authority — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 49
• SHARE: A clean, counterintuitive mechanism — tax less now to bind your successor — worth sending to anyone working on fiscal policy.

Broader Connections

• Neoliberal crisis responses deliberately undermine state fiscal authority #qualifies (0.72) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 49