This paper focuses on the issue of the electoral and ideological cycles in state
government budget for the eleven Western German Länder. We verify this hypothesis over the
period 1974–1994 for the following budgetary variables: total expenditures, surplus/deficit,
administration, health care, education, roads and social security benefits. While overall our
results seem to show that generally the party variable does not play a systematic role in spending
decisions, they provide some support to the opportunistic cycle theory showing that the
only relevant phenomenon is the effect of the upcoming election on the government spending
inclinations.
