The Relationship Between Voting Power and Economic Growth

Abstract

The purpose of this study is analyzing the impacts of voting power on the economic growth in the political decision making process. In the study; it is proposed that the changes of voting power, which the parties in the assembly have, affect the economic growth. Voting power of parties calculated by the Normalized Banzhaf Index of Power (NBI) technique. In the period of 1987-2009, three different voting power indexes were calculated for the political parties in the parlements of 47 countries. According to results of the analysis, which was done by the panel data method, the increase in the voting power of main opposition party affects the economic growth negavitely, while the increase in the voting power of the government or the party that forms the government affects the economic growth positively.