Promotion of the agricultural sector and political power in austria

In most industrialized countries farmers as a small and well organized grou p are able to influence government decisions to get rent creating proposals enacted. Two different views are presented to explain why: the Chicagoan v iew ("Efficient Redistribution Hypothesis") and the Virginian view (ineffic ient outcome of political bargaining). A vertically structured empirical mo del of the Austrian farm sector is employed to test both hypotheses. Quanti tative results of the welfare transfers from consumers/taxpayers to farmers and agribusiness firms are derived and the political weights of these grou ps are presented.