Popular protest and political budget cycles: A panel data analysis

We test the hypothesis that governments facing popular protest are more likely to use fiscal policy for re-election purposes, employing data of 65 democratic countries-both developed and developing-over the period 1975-2005. Using the number of anti-government demonstrations and general strikes in pre-election years as measures of popular protest, our results lend support to this hypothesis. The effect of protest on the manipulation of fiscal policy for re-election purposes is strongest in young democracies.