| Abstract [eng] |
Most of literature, that investigates decisions of fiscal policies, concentrates on the creation and operation of the common rules of EU. Others draw their attention to the countries in the deepest economic recession or analyze euro zone‘s giants patchy. Taking it into account, three theoretical approaches that try to explain motives of decisions in fiscal politics will be tested in this research with a special focus on euro zone‘s giants – France and Germany. These countries are chosen not by chance. Economics in both of these countries are the biggest ones in euro zone. Moreover, GDP per person is similar, national debts before the crisis were comparable in both countries. We also should keep in mind, that France and Germany are the founders of the European Union and remain powerful in the formation of the agenda of the EU. Even though the economic indicators of these countries are alike, the implemented fiscal measures for diminishing the pressure that comes to the public finances and the recovery level of GDP were different. The question arises, what determined that two biggest euro zone countries – France and Germany – were implementing different fiscal consolidation in 2010-2015. While answering this question the purpose of the research becomes – to find what determined the decisions in fiscal policies made by France and Germany in 2010-2015. There are three major goals to reach the purpose of the research: to analyze, whether the elections in France and Germany held at certain time, had an impact on decision making process; to explore if the parties of different ideologies in ruling elite can influence the implementation of policies of public finances; to distinguish the main characteristics of German ordoliberalism and French dirigisme theories, that explain the relationship between country and implemented economic model. Three explanations, that analyze different factors (political business cycle, party ideology of the government and longstanding economic traditions) of the possible influence on decisions of fiscal policies, will be used in this research. Three hypothesis are examined in order to verify different theoretical approaches, that are trying to explain actions of the government in the fiscal politics. The first hypothesis invokes an idea, that different levels of fiscal consolidation were determined by the political cycle of elections in the chosen countries (considering the fact, that elections were held in both countries). The second hypothesis states that fiscal anti-cyclicality is determined by the ideological path of the ruling party. Finally, the third hypothesis suggests that the collision in the opinion of the fiscal consolidation comes from different economic traditions. France determines their economics by dirigisme, while Germany by ordoliberalistic doctrine. This research lets us better understand which factor was the most influential in accomplishing policies of national budgets. The research shows, that decisions in fiscal politics of both countries were influenced by different factors: in France, they were influenced both by the elections and by the ideologies of the ruling parties, while in Germany decisions were determined by the economic tradition of the country. Future researches can follow this path and analyze deeper the impact of different parties and the electoral business cycle on the implementation of the public finance policies, considering the fact, that there will be important elections in both countries in 2017. |
