Strategic Taxation

Fiscal Capacity and Accountability in African States

Lucy E. S. Martin (Autor)

Buch | Softcover

232 Seiten

2023
Oxford University Press Inc (Verlag)
978-0-19-767264-8 (ISBN)

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Across the developing world, governments still lack the fiscal capacity to fund critical public goods, alleviate poverty, and invest in economic development. Yet, we know little about how to effectively build strong states in these settings. This book develops and tests a new theory to explain why fiscal capacity in African states is low. Drawing on work in psychology and behavioral economics, this book argues that taxation leads citizens to demand more from leaders as they seek to recover lost income from taxation. It then argues that governments' willingness to tax will depend on the extent to which they can satisfy citizens' demands while maintaining rent extraction. Rent-seeking leaders of low-capacity states will strategically underinvest in fiscal capacity in order to avoid the higher demands they face under taxation. Contrary to many existing theories, Martin shows that this can actually lead to lower taxation in democracies compared to autocracies, as citizen accountability demands pose a bigger threat to rulers.

The book uses multiple empirical approaches to test the theory. Laboratory experiments in Uganda and Ghana, combined with Afrobarometer data, demonstrate that taxation increases citizens' demands on leaders. Global cross-national panel data show that democracy can actually lead to lower taxation in low-capacity states. When taxation is sustainable, however, it is associated with better governance. Case studies in Uganda, based on the author's own fieldwork and original survey data, provide additional support for the theory. These findings provide new framework for understanding the challenges to building state capacity, especially fiscal capacity, in modern developing countries.

Lucy Martin is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Her research focuses on the ways in which taxation affects statebuilding and state-society relations in modern developing countries. She has published in the American Journal of Political Science, the Journal of Politics, Political Behavior, the Review of International Organizations, and the Journal of Experimental Political Science.

1. Introduction

2. Understanding Fiscal Capacity

3. How Taxation Increases Accountability Demands

Appendix

4. A Model of Taxation and Accountability

5. Evidence that Taxation Increases Accountability Demands

6. Taxation, Democracy, and Accountability

7. Understanding Taxation in Uganda

8. Conclusion

Erscheinungsdatum	28.04.2023
Zusatzinfo	9 graphs
Verlagsort	New York
Sprache	englisch
Maße	237 x 160 mm
Gewicht	345 g
Themenwelt	Sozialwissenschaften ► Politik / Verwaltung ► Europäische / Internationale Politik
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Politik / Verwaltung ► Politische Theorie
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Politik / Verwaltung ► Vergleichende Politikwissenschaften
ISBN-10	0-19-767264-7 / 0197672647
ISBN-13	978-0-19-767264-8 / 9780197672648
Zustand	Neuware