Regressive Taxation and the Welfare State

Regressive Taxation and the Welfare State PDF Author: Junko Kato
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139440667
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 278

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Book Description
Government size has attracted much scholarly attention. Political economists have considered large public expenditures a product of leftist rule and an expression of a stronger representation of labour interest. Although the size of the government has become the most important policy difference between the left and right in post-war politics, the formation of the government's funding base is also important. Junko Kato finds that the differentiation of tax revenue structure is path dependent upon the shift to regressive taxation. Since the 1980s, the institutionalisation of effective revenue raising by regressive taxes during periods of high growth has ensured resistance to welfare state backlash during budget deficits and consolidated the diversification of state funding capacity among industrial democracies. This book challenges the conventional wisdom that progressive taxation goes hand-in-hand with large public expenditures in mature welfare states and qualifies the partisan centred explanation that dominates the welfare state literature.

Regressive Taxation and the Welfare State

Regressive Taxation and the Welfare State PDF Author: Junko Kato
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139440667
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 278

Get Book

Book Description
Government size has attracted much scholarly attention. Political economists have considered large public expenditures a product of leftist rule and an expression of a stronger representation of labour interest. Although the size of the government has become the most important policy difference between the left and right in post-war politics, the formation of the government's funding base is also important. Junko Kato finds that the differentiation of tax revenue structure is path dependent upon the shift to regressive taxation. Since the 1980s, the institutionalisation of effective revenue raising by regressive taxes during periods of high growth has ensured resistance to welfare state backlash during budget deficits and consolidated the diversification of state funding capacity among industrial democracies. This book challenges the conventional wisdom that progressive taxation goes hand-in-hand with large public expenditures in mature welfare states and qualifies the partisan centred explanation that dominates the welfare state literature.

Paying for the welfare state in the 21st century

Paying for the welfare state in the 21st century PDF Author: Byrne, David
Publisher: Policy Press
ISBN: 1447336550
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 136

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Book Description
What does the future hold for the welfare state in the post-industrial 21st century? Political and economic forces are threatening the taxation regimes of highly globalised, capitalist societies, prompting an urgent debate around the function of the welfare state and how we pay for it. In a challenge to current policy and thinking, David Byrne and Sally Ruane deploy the concepts and analytical tools of Marxist political economy to better understand these developments, and the possibilities they present for social change. Using the SNP in Scotland as an illustrative case study, current debates are related to a critical understanding of the relationship between taxation and spending, issues that are fundamental to early 21st century politics and the future of the welfare state.

The Hidden Welfare State

The Hidden Welfare State PDF Author: Christopher Howard
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400822416
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 267

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Book Description
Despite costing hundreds of billions of dollars and subsidizing everything from homeownership and child care to health insurance, tax expenditures (commonly known as tax loopholes) have received little attention from those who study American government. This oversight has contributed to an incomplete and misleading portrait of U.S. social policy. Here Christopher Howard analyzes the "hidden" welfare state created by such programs as tax deductions for home mortgage interest and employer-provided retirement pensions, the Earned Income Tax Credit, and the Targeted Jobs Tax Credit. Basing his work on the histories of these four tax expenditures, Howard highlights the distinctive characteristics of all such policies. Tax expenditures are created more routinely and quietly than traditional social programs, for instance, and over time generate unusual coalitions of support. They expand and contract without deliberate changes to individual programs. Howard helps the reader to appreciate the historic links between the hidden welfare state and U.S. tax policy, which accentuate the importance of Congress and political parties. He also focuses on the reasons why individuals, businesses, and public officials support tax expenditures. The Hidden Welfare State will appeal to anyone interested in the origins, development, and structure of the American welfare state. Students of public finance will gain new insights into the politics of taxation. And as policymakers increasingly promote tax expenditures to address social problems, the book offers some sobering lessons about how such programs work.

Transfer Spending, Taxes, and the American Welfare State

Transfer Spending, Taxes, and the American Welfare State PDF Author: Wallace C. Peterson
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9401139210
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 188

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Book Description
In 1989 the federal government spent $1197 billion, a mind-boggling sum that is almost impossible to visualize. Since there were 248. 8 million people living in the United States in that year, the government spent an average of $4811 for every man, woman, and child in the nation. For a hypothetical family of four, federal spending in 1989 amounted to an average of$19,244. To put this sum in perspective, the money income of an American family averaged $35,270 in the same year. To finance spending $1197 billion, the government collected taxes from American citizens and residents in an amount of $1047 billion. Because of a shortfall between what it spent and what it took in taxes, the government had to borrow $150 billion, partly from individuals, but mostly from banks, insurance companies, and foreigners. How, where, and on whom did the federal government spend all this money? Since federal spending in 1989 totaled 23 cents in comparison to every dollar spent for the buying of goods and services, finding an answer to this question is not a trivial matter. Spending by Washington reaches into every nook and cranny of the economy, touching the lives and fortunes of almost everyone in the nation. Thus, answers to these questions are of more than academic interest.

Taxation and Democracy

Taxation and Democracy PDF Author: Sven Steinmo
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 9780300067217
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description
Examining the structure, politics and historic development of taxation in several countries, this book compares three quite different political democracies. It provides an account of the ways these democracies have financed their welfare programs despite w

Taxation and State-Building in Developing Countries

Taxation and State-Building in Developing Countries PDF Author: Deborah Brautigam
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139469258
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 261

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Book Description
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, 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.

Making the Modern American Fiscal State

Making the Modern American Fiscal State PDF Author: Ajay K. Mehrotra
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107043921
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 447

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Book Description
Making the Modern American Fiscal State chronicles the rise of the US system of direct and progressive taxation.

The Triumph of Injustice: How the Rich Dodge Taxes and How to Make Them Pay

The Triumph of Injustice: How the Rich Dodge Taxes and How to Make Them Pay PDF Author: Emmanuel Saez
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 1324002735
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 232

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Book Description
America’s runaway inequality has an engine: our unjust tax system. Even as they became fabulously wealthy, the ultra-rich have had their taxes collapse to levels last seen in the 1920s. Meanwhile, working-class Americans have been asked to pay more. The Triumph of Injustice presents a forensic investigation into this dramatic transformation, written by two economists who revolutionized the study of inequality. Eschewing anecdotes and case studies, Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman offer a comprehensive view of America’s tax system, based on new statistics covering all taxes paid at all levels of government. Their conclusion? For the first time in more than a century, billionaires now pay lower tax rates than their secretaries. Blending history and cutting-edge economic analysis, and writing in lively and jargon-free prose, Saez and Zucman dissect the deliberate choices (and sins of indecision) that have brought us to today: the gradual exemption of capital owners; the surge of a new tax avoidance industry, and the spiral of tax competition among nations. With clarity and concision, they explain how America turned away from the most progressive tax system in history to embrace policies that only serve to compound the wealth of a few. But The Triumph of Injustice is much more than a laser-sharp analysis of one of the great political and intellectual failures of our time. Saez and Zucman propose a visionary, democratic, and practical reinvention of taxes, outlining reforms that can allow tax justice to triumph in today’s globalized world and democracy to prevail over concentrated wealth. A pioneering companion website allows anyone to evaluate proposals made by the authors, and to develop their own alternative tax reform at taxjusticenow.org.

The Hidden Welfare State

The Hidden Welfare State PDF Author: Christopher Howard
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781400816538
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
Despite costing hundreds of billions of dollars and subsidizing everything from homeownership and child care to health insurance, tax expenditures (commonly known as tax loopholes) have received little attention from those who study American government. This oversight has contributed to an incomplete and misleading portrait of U.S. social policy. Here Christopher Howard analyzes the "hidden" welfare state created by such programs as tax deductions for home mortgage interest and employer-provided retirement pensions, the Earned Income Tax Credit, and the Targeted Jobs Tax Credit. Basing his work on the histories of these four tax expenditures, Howard highlights the distinctive characteristics of all such policies. Tax expenditures are created more routinely and quietly than traditional social programs, for instance, and over time generate unusual coalitions of support. They expand and contract without deliberate changes to individual programs. Howard helps the reader to appreciate the historic links between the hidden welfare state and U.S. tax policy, which accentuate the importance of Congress and political parties. He also focuses on the reasons why individuals, businesses, and public officials support tax expenditures. The Hidden Welfare State will appeal to anyone interested in the origins, development, and structure of the American welfare state. Students of public finance will gain new insights into the politics of taxation. And as policymakers increasingly promote tax expenditures to address social problems, the book offers some sobering lessons about how such programs work.

In Our Hands

In Our Hands PDF Author: Charles A. Murray
Publisher: A E I Press
ISBN:
Category : Basic income
Languages : en
Pages : 244

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Book Description
This book reveals the ineffectiveness of government redistribution plans and offers a radical new approach to social policy.