Tax Evasion, Trust, and State Capacities. Interdisciplinary Studies on Central and Eastern Europe, 3 by Nicolas Hayoz , Simon Hug (review)

Abstract

REVIEWS 587 taken into account while reading Wood's predictions of the future in hind sight, thatChechnya would have become more stable ifnot for the invasions (although it isdifficult to imagine itbecoming less stable). Over the course of this book, Wood does not address the intuitive inevi tability of the entire conflict. One can easily argue thatRussian policy here was thoroughly predictable. Given the long history of holy wars of Chechnya vs. Russia, he does not seem to grasp that it is almost impossible to imagine that, in the immediate post-Soviet environment, Russia would ever allow the Chechen wolf to start a country all to itself in the Caucasus without Russia doing everythingpossible to stop it. He isnevertheless correct that theRussian invasions have been torturous and horrible for both the Chechen and the Russian sides.The fact that therehas been so litde international outcry against thewar and in favour of immediate negotiations represents immorality of a staggeringmagnitude. Wood's book is excellent in arguing this point in particular, although he does not bringmuch new to the table. He provides intelligent coverage of the conflict in the contemporary era, and he overlooks litde in this respect. Although he offers few revelations, his commentary renews the conflict's separatist focus. Although one could dispute the starting point of his argu ment, it ishard to argue against some of the points he makes. It is true that thewars inChechnya should be recognized as a rebellion against an oppres sor in support of self-determination, and that it is dissolute to all sides that governments world-wide have been so quiet in givingRussia the opportunities to deal with Chechnya unhindered by critique and sanction. UCL SSEES J. Vaughn Hayoz, Nicolas and Hug, Simon (eds). Tax Evasion, Trust, and State Capacities. Interdisciplinary Studies on Central and Eastern Europe, 3. Peter Lang, Bern, Berlin, Brussels, Vienna, Oxford and New York, 2007. 385 pp. Figures. Tables. Notes. Appendices. Index. 60.00: ?39.00: $77.95 (paperback). Attitudes towards paying tax vary across time and space for a host of sometimes poorly understood reasons. But the ability to raise taxes effectively and economically is a sign of a competent and determined administration, and a largely compliant populace. It is also a sign that such a state is likely to provide public goods, services and transfer payments fairly efficientiy. Conversely a high degree of tax evasion generally accompanies a low level of trust in the state and itsofficials on the part of the taxpayer. In the area of taxation it isworth recalling that to turn themselves into effectivemarket economies Central and Eastern European countries faced a challenge quite as difficultas those faced in the better known areas of priva tization, banking and liberalization. This was because taxation under a planned economy bore no resemblance to taxation under a market system.Under planning, taxes on labour were deducted at source, taxes on capital were implicit in the distribution of financial flows between enterprises and the state, taxes on land were implicit in the procurement prices and quantities of agricultural products, and taxes on goods were levied by a range of turnover 588 seer, 88, 3, july 20i0 taxes that in effect formed wedges between costs and consumer prices. Rates of tax were almost invariably secret, complex, numerous and rarely changed. The eleven papers in thisvolume mostiy provide a series of country studies of how Eastern European states and their citizens adapted to the personal taxation administrative challenges and evasion opportunities of the first decade of transition ? the papers were presented at a 2003 conference. The two exceptions include an interesting lengthy examination of tax institutions and taxmorale in theUSA by Scholtz, and a paper by Feld and Frey that explores the linksbetween taxmorale and direct democracy in Switzerland. The latter attribute high compliance levels to a culture of trust,cooperation, accountability, federalism, direct democracy and the rule of law. The other case studies cover Russia, Hungary, Croatia, Romania, Armenia and the Czech Republic. There are also threemore general papers that consider the topic across Central and Eastern Europe as a whole. The volume is carefully and successfully focused. First there is a scene settingpaper byUslaner, which explores the role...