Executive Leadership and Fiscal Discipline: Explaining Political Entrepreneurship in Cases of Japan

This article discusses the effects of executive leadership on fiscal policies and performance. I propose that executive leadership, as a political entrepreneur who provides collective goods for organization, has incentives to maintain fiscal discipline so that he or she can stay in office by developing his or her party’s reputation and leading party legislators to electoral success. This article argues that executive leadership with stronger public support is more likely to restrain fiscal expenditure and maintain fiscal discipline. I demonstrate this argument by showing that the primeministerwho receives higher public support is more likely to restrain fiscal expenditure in Japan.