This paper investigates the impact of the intensity of political competition on the leviathan behavior of local politicians. While we find only weak effects of strong parties on total expenditures and, thus, only weak traces of standard leviathan behavior, we find strong evidence that the spending pattern during a legislative period depends on the distribution of power in local councils. In municipalities with weak political competition, the public spending reaches a peak in election years. If parties face politically strong opponents, they do not initiate a political budget cycle. Our results indicate that local politicians act as self‐preserving leviathans.