Referendum, Initiative, and Veto Power: Budgetary Decision Making in Local Government.

The paper examines the influence of different institutional arrangements of representative government. More specifically, the effects of (1) obligatory fiscal referendum, (2) voter initiative, and (3) veto power of an elected official of the executive branch (for instance, the mayor) on the level of expenditure are analyzed. Moreover, the influence of agenda setting power of bureaucracy on outcomes is compared with a case in which the legislature is able to introduce amendments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]