helpful comments. The Budget Surplus: A Public Choice Explanation*

Rapid federal expenditure growth and budget deficits became commonplace during the 1970s and 1980s. Public choice models explained this by continual special interest group pressure for spending, rationally ignorant voters, and shortsighted politicians finding deficit financing attractive. Recently, however, there have been budget surpluses and a slowdown in government expenditure growth. To date, only pure public finance explanations (mostly factual accounting stories) have been offered for the recent budget surpluses. This paper uses public choice theory to explain this turn of events. If public choice models are correct, they should explain the trends in both time periods. 1The Budget Surplus: A Public Choice Explanatio