(C) Emerald Group Publishing DEMOCRATIZATION AND CENTRAL GOVERNMENT SPENDING, 1870À1938: EMERGENCE OF THE LEVIATHAN? Jari Eloranta, Svetlozar Andreev and Pavel Osinsky Hitherto I have set forth the nature of man, whose pride and other passions have com- pelled him to submit himself to government … But because he is mortal, and subject to decay, as all other earthly creatures are; and because there is that in heaven, though not on earth, that he should stand in fear of, and whose laws he ought to obey … Hobbes, 1651, Chapter XXVIII ABSTRACT Did the expansion of democratic institutions play a role in determining central government spending behavior in the 19th and 20th centuries? The link between democracy and increased central government spending is well established for the post-Second World War period, but has never been explored during the first “wave of democracy” and its subsequent Research in Economic History, Volume 30, 1À46 Copyright r 2014 by Emerald Group Publishing Limited All rights of reproduction in any form reserved ISSN: 0363-3268/doi:10.1108/S0363-326820140000030001 1