Regressive Tax System Research Articles

Accounting, inequality and COVID-19 in Australia

PurposeThe authors explore the Australian Government's implementation of budgetary measures to manage the social and economic impacts of COVID-19, paying particular attention to how the country's history of inequality has shaped these actions, and the effect inequality may have on outcomes.Design/methodology/approachIn this qualitative case study of public budgeting, the authors draw on the latest research into inequality to consider the implications of policy responses to COVID-19 in Australia. In particular, we examine the short-term introduction of what we term “people-focused” budgetary measures. These appeared contrary to the dominant neoliberalist approach to Australian welfare policymaking.FindingsThis paper foregrounds the relationship between budgeting, public policy and inequality and explores how decades of increasingly regressive tax systems and stagnating living wages have made both people, and the state, vulnerable to crises like COVID.Social implicationsThere is still much to learn about the role of accounting in the shaping of growing economic inequality. In focusing on public budgeting within the context of COVID, the authors suggest ways accounting researchers can contribute to our understanding of economic inequality, both in terms of drivers and consequences. The authors hope to contribute to a growing body of accounting research that can influence social movements, political debates and policymaking, while also raising awareness of the consequences of wealth and income inequality.Originality/valueThe authors explore ways accounting scholars might help articulate a post-COVID future that avoids recreating the inequalities of the past and present.

The Effect of Tax Composition on Income Inequality: Sri Lankan Experience

The main purpose of this research paper is to identify the effect of tax composition and tax compliance among other variables on the income inequality in Sri Lanka. Taxes may affect income inequality depending on tax composition, progressivity and tax compliance. In the Sri Lankan context, the existing tax structure largely consists of indirect taxes and a higher level of tax non-compliance leading to a regressive tax system. Persistent high level income inequality and declining tax revenue buoyancy have been considerable issues experienced by the Sri Lanka government nearly over the last three decades that weakening fiscal operation and performance is an important empirical question to be addressed. This study adopts a time-series econometric method -- Johansen Cointegration and Vector Error Correction model to capture the long-run and dynamic relationships of selected variables. The data for the study were collected from Annual Reports and Economic and Social Statistics of Sri Lanka published by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka for the period of 1985 -2018. The key findings show a negative impact of direct taxes and a positive impact of indirect tax- VAT and tax noncompliance on income inequality. It suggests the necessity of broadening income tax base and strengthening tax compliance to reduce income inequality while improving buoyancy of tax revenues through best practices of taxation. Our findings provide more precise and feasible policy directives for the path to realize revenue-based fiscal consolidation with a more equitable and rationalized tax system in Sri Lanka. The impact on economic growth is not clear and left for future research.

Tax reform and redistribution for a better recovery

A regressive tax system and welfare cuts under ideological austerity have generated growing poverty and inequality in the UK and US. Failures in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting deep recession have the greatest impact on the poorest and most vulnerable, exacerbating poverty and inequality. In contrast to this depressing history, we show in detail that a better recovery in the UK requires a radical tax reform and a universal basic income, combined with a Green New Deal for full employment and a low-carbon economy, employee self-determination and economic democracy to eliminate exploitation and establish social justice.

Development and Human Rights in Bolivia: Advances, Contradictions, and Challenges

This article analyzes the economic and social policies implemented during the Evo Morales governments in Bolivia, which many scholars and social activists consider as a unique case of heterodox economic development. It seeks to contribute to the understanding of Bolivia’s development and economic process over the last decade from a human‐rights perspective, including challenges and contradictions. The questions covered include if there was social and economic inclusion during Evo Morales’ governments, and if so, to what extent; which main economic and social policies were implemented by the government to reduce poverty and inequality; and whether the socioeconomic model implemented was sustainable economically, financially, and environmentally. The article shows that from 2006 to 2019, Bolivia was successful in turning itself into a thriving economy in the region while reducing significantly poverty and inequality. Yet there has been an emerging need to reassess the economic and environmental sustainability of the prevailing model in view of the fiscal imbalance caused by the fall in oil commodity prices in 2014, the rapid loss of international reserves, increased public debt, high dependency on extractivism and limited economic diversification, a regressive tax system, and the large degree of informality in the economy. The discussion includes state agents’ brutal acts of repression against the population in the aftermath of the 2019 presidential elections.

Inability to Pay: Court Debt Circa 2020

Commitments to “access to justice” abound. So do economic barriers that undermine that premise. Fees, costs, fines, money bail, and other financial assessments - levied by courts, jails, and prisons - have become commonplace features of state and federal civil and criminal law enforcement. Yet the challenges of funding courts and the harms of debt generated through interactions with the legal system have not yet become staples of law school teaching and scholarship. This mini-symposium is one of many efforts underway to bring to the fore the failures of law to make good on its promises of open courts and equal treatment of civil disputants and criminal defendants. The essays that follow contribute to a growing literature mapping the impact of court and prison debt. This mini-symposium, in turn, offers law teachers and students a window into the breadth of research, litigation, legislation, and legal analyses aiming to understand and to stop what give become regressive tax systems that are produced by virtue of court-based fees, fines, assessments, and money bail.

Assessing the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the government revenues: a study on individual taxpayers of Bangladesh

Purpose. The purpose of the study includes analyzing the effects of the Coronavirus pandemic on the taxpaying ability of individual taxpayers of Bangladesh and its subsequent impact on the government revenue collection; analyzing the factors related to the taxpaying ability like the situation of their employer, regularity of payment and so on; suggestions to the policy makers. Methodology. In this study purposive random sampling technique was followed to choose the respondents. The sample of the research includes the individuals who are within the tax net and have to pay income tax to the government. 128 respondents participated in the survey spontaneously. Mean value, standard deviation and related statistical tools were used for analyzing the data in the research. SPSS software was used for analyzing and interpreting the research result. Statistical tables were used to display the outcome. Findings. The major findings of the study suggest that 65.6% of the respondents said that their official activities have been affected much while other 25% claimed that their activities have become moderately affected due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Income of 40.6% of the respondents has already been much affected and income of 32.8% of the respondents has been moderately affected. The study warns that due to the detrimental effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the income level, the governments tax collection may fall. Originality. The study concludes that the adverse effects of the COVID-19 pandemic will negatively affect the government revenue collection and to tackle this situation a less regressive tax system is suggested which will allow shifting tax liability to the rich taxpayers. The study emphases the implementation of the existing tax laws so that tax evasion is minimized. Practical value. The study has recommended some specific recommendations that may help the respective authority in tackling the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The study suggested making some necessary adjustments in the public expenditure to reduce the pressure on tax collection. It might be beneficial to the government to manage the COVID-19 pandemic if the recommendations of the study are taken into consideration.

Competition and collaboration between public and private sectors: the historical construction of the Spanish hospital system, 1942–86

AbstractThroughout history, healthcare, along with diet, has been an essential component of life and a country's welfare. In particular, a country's hospital system is a key indicator for analysing the level of welfare achieved by health coverage. From an economic history perspective, the study of hospital systems is relevant since they stem from public and private investment and produce positive externalities by creating employment and stimulating other economic sectors such as construction and health. Spain provides a significant case study for determining the factors of backwardness in the construction of a modern hospital system in a country on the European periphery. Moreover, it also helps us understand how, despite initial obstacles, this system had attained a significant degree of quality by the end of the twentieth century, as confirmed by its current international hospital rankings and even by the phenomenon of health tourism. The study analyses the creation of the Spanish hospital system during Franco's dictatorship and the transition to democracy. It reveals how the maintenance of a regressive tax system, the use of health policy as political propaganda, and disputes within the political elite of the dictatorship led to an inadequate and fragmented public hospital system, which had to collaborate with the private hospital system, was full of financial holes and tainted by corruption, and remained at the service of privileged groups.

Redistribution and the New Fiscal Sociology: Race and the Progressivity of State and Local Taxes.

States redistribute wealth through two mechanisms: spending and taxation. Yet studies of the social determinants of redistribution typically focus exclusively on government spending. This article explores how one determinant of social spending-racial composition-influences preferences for, and the structure of, tax systems. First, analyses of state and local tax burden data indicate that an increasing proportion of Latinos within states is associated with more regressive tax systems. Second, evidence from a nationally representative survey experiment suggests that individual preferences for taxation may be influenced by changes in the racial composition of communities. Finally, analyses reveal that in-group solidarity is a key mechanism through which racial threat shapes preferences for taxation. In demonstrating a relationship between racial change, tax preferences, and tax structures, this article contributes to our under-standing of the determinants of redistribution as well as the broader project of the new fiscal sociology.

Wage Taxation and Public Health

The structure of a tax system is relevant to public health. Wage taxes are the predominant form of taxation in both Europe and the United States. Yet, high rates of wage taxation harm worker health particularly when wage taxes are part of an overall regressive tax system. The causal mechanisms for the negative effect of wage taxes on public health occur by (i) pushing marginal workers into absolute poverty by payment of wage taxes; (ii) increasing working hours for low-wage workers; (iii) increasing levels of economic inequality by relatively higher tax and audit rates of persons with labor income; and (iv) reducing financial (and time) investment in children by overburdened workers. Optimal tax policy accordingly requires an evaluation of the cost of wage taxes levied on “health capital” of workers as well as financial capital.

Explaining Catch-Up in Human Development: A Political Economy Comparisons on the Philippines and Viet Nam Since 1986

The Philippines and Viet Nam are the two most populous countries in Southeast Asia after Indonesia. This paper examines the underlying reasons for their contrasting human development and growth experiences since 1986 from a political economy perspective. By a sequenced combination of market liberalization, land reform, and public investments in health and education, plus large aid and foreign direct investment inflows, Viet Nam generated broad-based, sustained, and rapid economic growth. Viet Nam’s authoritarian but socially inclusive governments then used progressive taxation and inter-provincial transfers to translate this growth into human development outcomes. In contrast, in the Philippines, traditional elites were able to dominate the democratic process, capture rents and divert resources away from investment in human development and infrastructure, thereby stifling a short-lived growth acceleration. The Philippines has also been caught in a low-revenue, low-expenditure trap due to its porous and regressive tax system and self-reinforcing internal revenue allotment mechanism. While not without their drawbacks, economic growth and human development in Viet Nam have therefore been more inclusive, as well as faster, than in the Philippines.

State Building and Taxation in Latin America

State Building and Taxation in Latin America Heidi Jane M. Smith Mobilizing Resources in Latin America: The Political Economy of Tax Reform in Chile and Argentina. By Omar Sánchez. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011. Pp. xi + 245. $85.00 cloth. ISBN: 9780230114463. Taxation and Society in Twentieth-Century Argentina. By José Antonio Sánchez Román. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012. Pp. xiv + 245. $90.00 cloth. ISBN: 9780230341265. State-Building and Tax Regimes in Central America. By Aaron Schneider. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2012. Pp. xvi + 243. $90.00 cloth. ISBN: 9781107019096. Taxing and spending are two main functions of a modern government, and citizens’ opinions on how they are taxed matter for creating an effective state apparatus. This is particularly true in Latin America, where states are considered to be weak and tax-to-GDP ratios are relatively low. While many scholars have studied the link between state formation and society through the lenses of fiscal sociology and tax policy, mainly in continental Europe and the United States, social scientists are only now beginning to evaluate this phenomenon in developing countries by using an institutionalist approach.1 Latin America has one of the world’s lowest tax rates per capita, and many people outright do not pay their share. The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) reports that tax revenues, excluding social contributions, were on average about 17 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) compared to over 30 percent in more developed economies.2 The IDB notes that tax revenues from capital income and direct taxation (including income tax) are also low. In many countries, capital income is hardly taxed at all, and deductions are very high with many loopholes encouraging elites to evade paying.3 In Latin America the problems are exacerbated where highly regressive tax systems exist side by side with highly unequal income distribution. [End Page 256] Notably, there are very large discrepancies in tax burdens across countries and within states (at the subnational level). They range from the low burdens of countries endowed with nonrenewable resources like Mexico and Venezuela (about 10 percent of GDP), to high levels in countries like Brazil (36 percent of GDP).4 Brazil’s tax-to-GDP ratio is close to the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) average, but in some countries, such as Peru, Guatemala, and Haiti, government revenue is much lower, ranging between 10 and 20 percent of GDP. This reflects the inability of the government to bring more dynamic sectors of the economy into the tax net. State-society relations matter for how taxation systems are established within a country. To explore this ground, three scholars recently have published inquiries about the nature of civil society’s fiscal interaction with the state by evaluating how Latin American tax systems were built. Coming to the question from the disciplinary perspectives of history and political science rather than the well-worn paths of sociology and economics, the works adopt an institutionalist approach. They include an in-depth single case study, a classic two-country comparison, and a multicountry study. While the first two treat the more developed countries of the Southern Cone, the third examines less-developed Central America. Mobilizing Resources in Latin America: The Political Economy of Tax Reform in Chile and Argentina, by Omar Sánchez, suggests that while Argentina has failed to produce an appropriate social contract upon which to build fiscal legitimacy, Chile has been successful not only in collecting taxes but also in achieving impressive economic growth and macroeconomic stability sustained for decades. For Sánchez, the typical economic and rational-choice theories used to evaluate tax policy through the lenses of efficiency and effectiveness do not necessarily help us understand why a particular country pursues a specific set of fiscal policies. He evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of institutions by studying the political environment, policy operations, and group interactions that create a particular tax policy. He finds that Argentina constantly changed the rules of the tax game. Middling tax enforcement mechanisms at the national level, weak party systems, and the near absence of organized civil society hindered tax compliance. As a result, an effective state-society pact was never...

Alabama Getaway: The Political Imaginary and the Heart of Dixie (review)

Reviewed by: Alabama Getaway: The Political Imaginary and the Heart of Dixie Michael Bowen Alabama Getaway: The Political Imaginary and the Heart of Dixie. By Allen Tullos. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2011. 364 pp. $69.95 (cloth). ISBN 978-0-8203-3048-8. $24.95 (paper). ISBN 978-0-8203-3049-5. In Alabama Getaway, Emory professor Allen Tullos delivers a superbly written takedown of the state's political culture and collective memory explaining why Alabama rates second only to Mississippi in jokes made at its expense. Borrowing his title from the Grateful Dead, Tullos treads the line between historical narrative and political treatise, offering both an explanation for how the state got into such poor shape and suggestions for how it can improve. His tendency for well-crafted satirical phrases gives this pointed narrative of lost opportunities and missteps a comedic tone as he reminds the reader of how far Alabama has come, yet how far it still has to go. Tullos ties together a disparate group of attitudes and value judgments into what he calls the "Heart of Dixie." This "political imaginary," as he terms it throughout the book, holds a great deal of sway over the state's citizenry and limits the debates and public policy choices of its legislators. Chapter one brilliantly surveys the individual elements of the Heart of Dixie mentality. Using episodes from both Alabama history and the writings of its expatriate authors, Tullos reveals how the state's extreme conservatism chokes its economic and spiritual growth. The homophobia of Judge Roy Moore meshes almost seamlessly with the white flight to the Birmingham suburbs and Alabama Power's omnipresent opposition to climate change legislation. The Heart of Dixie is most openly expressed through the "sez-you" idea, a shorthand term for Alabama's obstinate refusal to take, or even acknowledge, criticism and its unwillingness [End Page 153] to address its failing education and taxation systems. The evidence Tullos assembles here gives the reader a clear understanding of how all-encompassing and restrictive this political imaginary is and the role it has played in retarding Alabama's progress. The middle third of the book is the Heart of Dixie in practice. After an extended treatment of the Alabama prison system, the most prominent embodiment of the state's systemic racism and punitive spirit, Tullos takes the reader on a tour of the last fifty years of Alabama politics. Out of this story, two villains emerge. The first, the 1901 state constitution, codified the power of elite landholders through a regressive tax system that overburdened the middle and lower classes. The second, Governor George Wallace, enshrined the "sez-you" system through his 1963 stand at the schoolhouse door in Tuscaloosa and his penchant for race-baiting throughout his career. Both represent the Heart of Dixie at its worst and Tullos persuasively argues that the state will not address its systemic racism and inequality until it scraps the constitution and moves past the legacy of Wallaceism. The final third of the book presents alternative visions to the Heart of Dixie, largely through the work of Civil Rights leaders and other African Americans who have continued the fight through the present. Chapters six and eight are groupings of anecdotes that highlight numerous examples of progressive political and judicial action. These serve as a stark contrast to the sketches of chapter one and clearly indicate that progress is possible in Alabama—just at a slower pace than nearly everywhere else. Here again, Tullos does an excellent job of linking history with contemporary events to illuminate a possible path to change. Despite covering such wide-ranging ground, Tullos's argument holds together fairly well. The one outlier is the chapter on Condoleezza Rice. As a native of Birmingham Rice is certainly fair game, but Tullos focuses almost exclusively on her role in the 2003 Iraq War. Rice's middle-class parents sheltered her from grassroots activism and looked down on the Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth and his local movement for social justice. Rice transcended her hometown to become the first female African American Secretary of State, and one could make an argument that Rice's upbringing and experiences are proof...

Poverty and vulnerability in rural China: effects of taxation

This paper studies the impact of taxation on poverty and ex ante vulnerability of households in rural China based on national household survey data in 1988, 1995 and 2002. It has been confirmed that (i) poverty and vulnerability have reduced significantly with a great deal of geographical disparity; (ii) education, land, and access to infrastructure and irrigation facilities are the key factors to reduce vulnerability; and (iii) the highly regressive tax system increased farmers’ poverty and vulnerability. The abolishment of rural tax since 2006 would thus have a significant negative impact on both poverty and vulnerability of rural households.

Brasil, balanço econômico, sucessos e limites

Aparentemente duas filosofias econômicas opostas caracterizam a política econômica seguida pelos governos sucessivos sob a presidência de Lula. Uma, monetarista, busca frear a alta dos preços: taxas de juros reais muito elevadas, superávits primários consideráveis, apreciação da moeda nacional. Ela explica ao mesmo tempo as dificuldades de fazer crescer a taxa de investimento, aumentar o valor agregado dos bens produzidos e favorecer a produção de bens de alto conteúdo tecnológico. A outra, keynesiana, busca diminuir as desigualdades, aumentar o salário mínimo e assegurar uma cobertura social mais ampla. Ela explica a taxa de crescimento elevada e o novo dinamismo do mercado interno. Com a crise internacional, a segunda filosofia influencia mais a política econômica do que no passado e oferece a oportunidade de ingresso numa nova era, contanto que seja removido o obstáculo de um sistema fiscal regressivo e contanto que se crie, no futuro, uma política industrial mais ativa que diminua os riscos de primarização que ameaçam o Brasil.

Poverty and Vulnerability in Rural China: Effects of Taxation

This paper studies the impact of taxation on poverty and ex ante vulnerability of households in rural China based on national household survey data in 1988, 1995 and 2002. It has been confirmed that i) poverty and vulnerability have reduced significantly with a great deal of geographical disparity, ii) education, land, and access to infrastructure and irrigation facilities are among the key factors to reduce vulnerability, and iii) the highly regressive tax system increased farmer’s poverty and vulnerability. The abolishment of rural tax since 2006 would thus have a significant negative impact on both poverty and vulnerability of rural households.

Regressive Tax Rates and the Unethical Taxation of Salaried Income

In a regressive tax system, lower-income taxpayers pay larger percentages of their incomes in taxes compared to higher-income taxpayers. Although most policymakers and citizens view regressive taxation as generally unfair and unethical, the U.S. tax system taxes wage, salary, and self-employment income in a manner that deliberately subjects lower-income taxpayers to marginal tax rates that are greater than those imposed on higher-income taxpayers. As a result, some lower-income taxpayers pay a larger percentage of their income in taxes than higher-income taxpayers. In this essay, we argue that this regressiveness in the taxation of salaried income is unfair and unethical. We then evaluate President Obama’s social security plan, which would retain most of the current tax system’s regressive structure. Finally, we offer two simple alternative proposals that are non-regressive, and thus more fair and ethical approaches to the taxation of salaried income.

History and Hope in the Heart of Dixie: Scholarship, Activism, and Wayne Flynt (review)

Reviewed by: History and Hope in the Heart of Dixie: Scholarship, Activism, and Wayne Flynt Charles W. Eagles (bio) History and Hope in the Heart of Dixie Scholarship, Activism, and Wayne Flynt. Edited by Gordon Harvey, Richard Starnes, and Glenn Feldman University of Alabama Press 240 pp. Cloth, $50.00; paper, $24.95 In 2006 Wayne Flynt retired from Auburn University after teaching history for more than forty years. Born in Pontotoc, Mississippi, Flynt grew up in rural and [End Page 98] small-town Alabama. By the time he graduated from Howard College (now Samford University) in Birmingham in 1961, he was an ordained Baptist minister, had served as student body president, and had coordinated southern college students for Richard Nixon in 1960. Already a critic of segregation, Flynt rejected a career as a southern minister for graduate study in history at Florida State University. After a decade teaching at Howard College, he moved in 1977 to Auburn. In addition to teaching thousands of undergraduates, he directed more than forty doctoral dissertations. His historical scholarship in more than a dozen books deals with southern politics, religion, and poverty, often focused on Alabama, and has earned many prizes, including the 1990 Lillian Smith Award for non-fiction. He also won teaching awards, served as department chairman, and was a Distinguished University Professor. Flynt was no ordinary university professor. As a scholar and as a Christian, he advocated reform of Alabama's regressive tax system, helped found Alabama Citizens for Constitutional Reform, supported better and equal funding for public schools, served on the board of directors of the Alabama Poverty Project, and spoke out against powerful special interests. To recognize his many contributions both as a historian and as an activist, three of his former graduate students collected eleven essays from Flynt's students and colleagues. History and Hope in the Heart of Dixie follows a line of Festschriften that have saluted eminent southern historians. Edited in 1965 by Arthur S. Link and Rembert Patrick, the essays in Writing Southern History: Essays in Historiography in Honor of Fletcher M. Green have had perhaps the greatest influence in the field. Twenty-five years later John B. Boles and Evelyn Thomas Nolen edited Interpreting Southern History: Historiographical Essays in Honor of Sanford W. Higginbotham, the long-time editor of the Journal of Southern History. Other prominent Festschriften with more traditional monographic or narrative contributions have honored C. Vann Woodward, David Herbert Donald, and George Brown Tindall. Four essays emphasizing Flynt's activities outside the classroom distinguish History and Hope in the Heart of Dixie from similar volumes. Though one coherent and comprehensive assessment would have served the reader better than the four repetitive ones, the contributions by John Shelton Reed, Dewayne Key, Bailey Thomson, and Dan T. Carter each describe Flynt's Christian civic activism and provide examples of his importance for modern Alabama. Sociologist Reed praises him as a public intellectual whose "social thought comes not from Karl Marx or The Nation but straight from the Sermon on the Mount." Thomson, a longtime journalist and professor at the University of Alabama, both observed Flynt and worked with him in reform efforts. Seeing in Flynt an "evangelist's zeal for attacking injustice," Thomson describes him as combining "a writer's sensibility with a scholar's curiosity and an activist's passion." Key, an Alabama public school leader, describes his colleague in educational reform as "a spiritual man who is [End Page 99] guided by timeless principles of compassion and fairness and justice and who has become a sort of modern prophet to his region and state. He is a patient man who perseveres as he pursues the acceptance and incorporation of these principles in the formation of public policy in this state." Comparing his fellow historian to Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird, Carter calls him "the conscience" of Alabama and finds in Flynt "a remarkable blend of academic excellence and public service." Between these remarkable tributes to Wayne Flynt, seven of his former students present scholarly essays in his honor. All but one deal with the twentieth-century South, and most stress the impact of race in southern history. Bruce Blevins's...

Entre la eficiencia y la equidad. Los desafíos de la reforma fiscal en Buenos Aires. Primera mitad del siglo XIX

ResumenEn 1821 se realiza una reforma fiscal en Buenos Aires de claro carácter modernizador. Se suprimen gravámenes de antiguo régimen y se crea un sistema que si bien incluye los inevitables impuestos al comercio exterior, implanta contribuciones directas a los capitales, con el objeto de disminuir la dependencia de los primeros y distribuir más equitativamente la carga fiscal, imponiendo a los propietarios según sus riquezas.En este trabajo se reconstruyen las series impositivas, mostrando el escaso peso de la Contribución Directa en el conjunto. Se estudian también diversos intentos de mejorar su recaudación, que fueron fracasando uno tras otro.Finalmente se analizan las causas de estos fracasos y la lógica que llevó a los gobiernos del período a mantener un sistema impositivo regresivo, pero eficiente y con menores costos políticos.

Some Sources of Income Inequality in Latín America

AbstractThis paper considers the deep-seated roots of income inequality in the structure of Latin American economics. These include unequal distribution of land ownership, the “Kuznets effect” of rapid industrialization, regressive tax systems, and failure of governments to pursue aggressively income equalization policies. While examples are drawn from the experience of Brazil and Mexico, similar conclusions hold for other countries of the region.

Taxation and Democracy: Swedish, British, and American Approaches to Financing the Modern State

Taxation and Democracy is the first book to examine the structure, politics, and historic development of taxation policies in several countries. Comparing three quite different political democracies-Sweden, Britain, and the United States-the book provides a powerful account of the ways these democracies have managed to finance their welfare programs despite widespread public resistance to taxes. Sven Steinmo argues that the different political structures of these countries produce varying tax systems and, by extension, differing social policy regimes. According to Steinmo, all democracies face a basic dilemma-how government can be both autonomous and responsive to public wishes. This dilemma is a crucial factor in explaining their different tax systems. In the United States, for example, the system of multiple checks and balances and fragmented political authority has led to a tax system that is complex, inefficient, and has a low revenue yield. Sweden's corporatist model of government is less responsive to the will of the masses, and so the country has a surprisingly regressive tax system that is stable, efficient, and has a high revenue yield: its working class basically agrees to accept a heavy tax burden in exchange for heavy social welfare spending. The British government, which is dominated by strong parties, can virtually dictate tax policy preferences to the Parliament, and so its tax system is highly unstable, as is the distribution of tax burdens among classes. Steinmo demonstrates that the New Institutionalism can account for both historic continuities and political change-that common economic and political forces confronting these countries in the twentieth century were shaped by each country's changing political institutions. His study thus makes an important contribution to comparative political theory as well as to our understanding of the development of the modern welfare state.