Private Wealth and Public Revenue in Latin America
：Business Power and Tax Politics
Publication subTitle ：Business Power and Tax Politics
Author： Tasha Fairfield;
Publisher： Cambridge University Press
Publication year： 2015
E-ISBN: 9781316916452
P-ISBN(Paperback): 9781107088375
P-ISBN(Hardback): 9781107088375
Subject： D034 State institutions;D52 世界政治制度与国家机构
Keyword： 政治、法律
Language： ENG
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Description
This book identifies sources of power that help business and economic elites influence policy decisions. This book develops a theoretical framework that refines and integrates the classic concepts of business's instrumental (political) power and structural (investment) power to explain the scope and fate of tax initiatives targeting economic elites in Latin America after economic liberalization. This book develops a theoretical framework that refines and integrates the classic concepts of business's instrumental (political) power and structural (investment) power to explain the scope and fate of tax initiatives targeting economic elites in Latin America after economic liberalization. Inequality and taxation are fundamental problems of modern times. How and when can democracies tax economic elites? This book develops a theoretical framework that refines and integrates the classic concepts of business's instrumental (political) power and structural (investment) power to explain the scope and fate of tax initiatives targeting economic elites in Latin America after economic liberalization. In Chile, business's multiple sources of instrumental power, including cohesion and ties to right parties, kept substantial tax increases off the agenda. In Argentina, weaker business power facilitated significant reform, although specific sectors, including finance and agriculture, occasionally had instrumental and/or structural power to defend their interests. In Bolivia, popular mobilization counterbalanced the power of economic elites, who were much stronger than in Argentina but weaker than in Chile. The book's in-depth, medium-N case analysis and close attention to policymaking processes contribute insights on business power and prospects for redistribution in unequal democracies. 1. Tax policy and economic elites: going where the money is; 2. The power of economic elites; 3. Organized business and direct taxation in Chile: restricting the agenda; 4. Circumventing business power in Chile: progress at the margins; 5. Weak economic elites and direct tax policy successes in Argentina; 6. Sectoral tax politics in Argentina: finance; 7. Sectoral tax politics in Argentina: agriculture; 8. Bolivia's tax-policy tightrope: powerful elites and mobilized masses; 9. Tax developments under left rule in Bolivia and right rule in Chile; 10. Conclusions. 'Tasha Fairfield's conceptually ambitious and empirically rich study is a landmark contribution to literature on elites and Latin American political economy. Her thorough comparative analysis of Argentina, Bolivia, and Chile reveals that strong business associations tied closely to the state augment elite capacity to block progressive tax reforms. Conversely, social movement influence over the state can undermine elite capacity to resist taxation needed to redistribute wealth in a region long plagued by vast income disparities.' Eric Hershberg, American University 'Despite long-standing concerns about economic inequality in Latin America and the growing attention to social policies that might address these concerns, there has been remarkably little political economy research on the tax side of these issues. Tasha Fairfield's new book, Private Wealth and Public Revenue in Latin America, takes an important step in filling this gap. Building on power resource theories, the book goes beyond the conventional focus on the impact of left parties and unions and shines a spotlight on the role and relative influence of busin
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