Taxation and State-Building in Developing Countries: Capacity and Consent

by Edited by Deborah Brautigam , Odd-Helge Fjeldstad , Mick Moore

• ISBN13: 9780521888158
• ISBN10: 0521888158
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-02-04
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

There is a widespread concern that, in some parts of the world, governments are unable to exercise effective authority. When governments fail, more sinister forces thrive: warlords, arms smugglers, narcotics enterprises, ethnic associations, kidnap gangs, terrorist networks, armed militias. Why do governments fail? This book explores an old idea that has returned to prominence: that authority, effectiveness, accountability and responsiveness is closely related to the ways in which governments are financed. It matters that governments tax their citizens rather than live from oil revenues and foreign aid, and it matters how they tax them. Taxation stimulates demands for representation, and an effective revenue authority is the central pillar of state capacity. Using case studies from Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America, this book presents and evaluates these arguments, updates theories derived from European history in the light of conditions in contemporary poorer countries, and draws conclusions for policy-makers.

Table of Contents

List of figures and tables	p. vii
List of contributors	p. viii
Acknowledgements	p. ix
Introduction: taxation and state-building in developing countries	p. 1
Between coercion and contract: competing narratives on taxation and governance	p. 34
Capacity, consent and tax collection in post-communist states	p. 64
Taxation and coercion in rural China	p. 89
Mass taxation and state-society relations in East Africa	p. 114
Contingent capacity: export taxation and state-building in Mauritius	p. 135
Tax bargaining and nitrate exports: Chile 1880-1930	p. 160
Associational taxation: a pathway into the informal sector?	p. 183
Rethinking institutional capacity and tax regimes: the case of the Sino-Foreign Salt Inspectorate in Republican China	p. 212
Tax reform and state-building in a globalised world	p. 235
References	p. 261
Index	p. 287
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.