Democratically elected politicians tend to push the cost of financial crises to the future in order to avert unpopularity

Autocracies have traditionally been thought more spendthrift than democracies which manage money prudently in order to maintain favour with the public to whom they are accountable. But is this true? According to Christopher Gandrud and Mark Hallerberg, not necessarily, as politicians in democratic polities are more likely to push the costs to the future rather than take a hit in popularity.