Parties, Pressure groups and the Politics of Municipal Expenditures in France

Résumé :

The paper proposes an analysis of determinants of public expenditures in French cities over 20.000 between 1983 and 1985. Different factors are estimated using bivariate analysis. Environmental determinants are contrasted with political variables including influence of the bureaucracy and pressure groups, and partisan ideology of mayors. Results show that ideology is more influential on short-term changes, while interest groups pressure is more significant on long term policy outputs. Among the latter, business groups seem more influential on local public spendings than services users or municipal employees. Different modes of interests articulation according to mayors partisan affiliation draw different patterns of influence on policies in French cities.