Download or read book Taxing Wars written by Sarah Kreps and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018-05-01 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why have the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq lasted longer than any others in American history? The conventional wisdom suggests that the move to an all-volunteer force and unmanned technologies such as drones have reduced the apparent burden of war so much that they have allowed these conflicts to continue almost unnoticed for years. Taxing Wars suggests that the burden in blood is just one side of the coin. The way Americans bear the burden in treasure has also changed, and these changes have both eroded accountability and contributed to the phenomenon of perpetual war. Sarah Kreps chronicles the entire history of how America has paid for its wars-and how its methods have changed. Early on, the United States imposed war taxes that both demanded sacrifices from all Americans and served as reminders of their participation. Indeed, thinkers from Immanuel Kant to Adam Smith argued that these reminders were exactly the reason why democracies tended to fight shorter and less costly wars. Bearing these burdens caused the populace to sue for peace when the costs mounted. Leaders in a democracy, responsive to their citizens, would have incentives to heed that opposition and bring wars to as expeditious an end as possible. Since the Korean War, the United States has increasingly moved away from war taxes. Instead, borrowing-and its comparatively less visible connection with the war-has become a permanent feature of contemporary wars. The move serves leaders well because reducing the apparent burden of war has helped mute public opposition and any decision-making constraints. But by masking accountability, however, the move away from war taxes undermines the basis for democratic restraint in wartime. Contemporary wars have become correspondingly longer and costlier as the public has become disconnected from those burdens. Given the trends identified in Taxing Wars, the recent past-epitomized by our lengthy wars in Afghanistan and Iraq-is likely to be prologue.
Download or read book Taxing Democracy written by Valerie Braithwaite and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-10-31 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The integrity of tax systems as we know them are being challenged throughout the world. Tax avoidance schemes of various kinds are proving increasingly attractive and lucrative to wealthy individuals and large corporations. As governments fear the erosion of their tax base among those who are most able to contribute, the public is looking on, as one of its most public institutions attempts to re-invent itself through changing laws and administrative procedures. In this book, a number of experts develop the idea of responsive regulation in relation to taxation. They demonstrate how law in this area is undermining social norms and social norms are undermining law. A key factor in their analysis is the perception of justice. Explanations as to why the integrity of tax systems is under siege, and possible solutions, are examined.
Download or read book Taxing Democracy written by Carrie Manning and published by Policy Press. This book was released on 2022-12 with total page 148 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Carrie Manning's illuminating book examines how policies to limit taxation at state and local levels in the US have direct and lasting consequences for equity, accountability, and ultimately for democracy. Tax structures embed and reproduce an implicit social contract between government and citizens, creating path-dependent outcomes that produce unintended consequences which are rarely traced back to state and local revenue models. This book combines historical American political development with the study of state formation. It provides a clear-eyed investigation into the past, present, and future of the social contract between America's local governments and citizens.
Download or read book Taxing Democracy written by Valerie Braithwaite and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-03-02 with total page 323 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The integrity of tax systems as we know them are being challenged throughout the world. Tax avoidance schemes of various kinds are proving increasingly attractive and lucrative to wealthy individuals and large corporations. As governments fear the erosion of their tax base among those who are most able to contribute, the public is looking on, as one of its most public institutions attempts to re-invent itself through changing laws and administrative procedures. In this book, a number of experts develop the idea of responsive regulation in relation to taxation. They demonstrate how law in this area is undermining social norms and social norms are undermining law. A key factor in their analysis is the perception of justice. Explanations as to why the integrity of tax systems is under siege, and possible solutions, are examined.
Download or read book Taxation and Democracy written by Sven Steinmo and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 1993-01-01 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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
Download or read book Tax Crusaders and the Politics of Direct Democracy written by Daniel A. Smith and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-11-15 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Daniel A. Smith exposes the truth about the American tax revolt. Contrary to conventional wisdom, recent ballot initiatives to limit state taxes have not been the result of a groundswell of public outrage; rather, they have been carefully orchestrated from the top down by professional tax crusaders: political entrepreneurs with their own mission. These faux populist initiatives--in contrast to genuine grassroots movements--involve minimal citizen participation. Instead, the tax crusaders hire public relations firms and use special interest groups to do the legwork and influence public opinion. Although they successfully tap into the pervasive anti-tax public mood by using populist rhetoric, these organizations serve corporate interests rather than groups of concerned neighbors. The author shows that direct democracy can, ironically, lead to diminished public involvement in government. Smith looks at the key players, following the trail of money and power in three important initiatives: Proposition 13 in California (1978), Proposition 2 1/2 in Massachusetts (1980), and Amendment 1 in Colorado (1992). He provides a thorough history of tax limitation movements in America, showing how direct democracy can be manipulated to subvert the democratic process and frustrate the public good.
Download or read book Taxing Democracy written by Valerie A. Braithwaite and published by . This book was released on 2003 with total page 303 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Taxing Wars written by Sarah Elizabeth Kreps and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Why have the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq lasted longer than any others in American history? One view is that the move to an all-volunteer force and drones have allowed the wars to continue almost unnoticed for years. Taxing Wars suggests how Americans bear the burden in treasure has also changed, with recent wars financed by debt rather than taxes. This shift has eroded accountability and contributed to the phenomenon of perpetual war"--
Download or read book Taxation and Democracy in America written by Sidney Ratner and published by Octagon Press, Limited. This book was released on 1980 with total page 608 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Defiance in Taxation and Governance written by Valerie A. Braithwaite and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2009-01-01 with total page 377 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: [Valerie] Braithwaite merges her considerable knowledge of a wide range of disciplines to produce an exemplar of interdisciplinary research. The use of the taxation system as the basis for analysis of how people manage their relationship with authority is effective and produces a much-needed addition to the behavioural literature. While the book is primarily about defiance in taxation, many instances of non-taxation related defiance are included, which provides excellent support and extension of the tax-based arguments. Braithwaite has produced an excellent example of a book that is grounded in the extant literature, while expanding our understanding of the importance of understanding the behaviours that drive defiance. The aim of the book is to show how authorities can live symbiotically with defiance and she achieves this superbly, illustrating how improved satisfaction with the process can minimise defiance. Lisa Marriott, Pacific Accounting Review This innovative book presents a theory of tax defiance, integrating five years of research on people s hopes, fears and expectations of the tax system and the authority that administers it. Valerie Braithwaite makes a major contribution to regulatory theory by mapping the psychological processes of defiance. At the heart of the analysis is the concept of motivational posturing signals sent to indicate how favourably an authority is viewed and readiness to defer to an authority's demands. The author explains how resistant defiance expresses disapproval of the way an authority operates and signals to government the need to improve performance to win back public confidence. Resistance weakens as the authority claws back its institutional integrity. Dismissive defiance, on the other hand, is challenging and undermining, and is not so responsive. The book argues for institutional reforms that are both mindful of grievance and of alternative authorities that challenge power. It illustrates that in delivering institutional reform, commitment to democratic principles and integrity of government will enable authorities to argue their case for community co-operation where appropriate. Finally, the book goes on to show that power sharing is likely to be a more apt remedy when dismissive defiance is entrenched. Safeguarding these deliberations in mature democracies are moral obligation and social capital, both of which are likely to erode when authorities show neither justice nor wisdom in handling defiance. This unique and innovative example of how psychology can be integrated into new institutional theory and public policy practice will prove an interesting read for scholars, students and researchers in the fields of regulatory studies, economics, public policy and public finance, politics and psychology.
Download or read book Taxing Democracy written by Carrie L. Manning and published by . This book was released on 2024 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Carrie Manning's illuminating text examines how policies to limit taxation at state and local levels in the US have direct and lasting consequences for equity, accountability, and ultimately for democracy.
Download or read book Taxing the Rich written by Kenneth Scheve and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2017-11-07 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A groundbreaking history of why governments do—and don't—tax the rich In today's social climate of acknowledged and growing inequality, why are there not greater efforts to tax the rich? In this wide-ranging and provocative book, Kenneth Scheve and David Stasavage ask when and why countries tax their wealthiest citizens—and their answers may surprise you. Taxing the Rich draws on unparalleled evidence from twenty countries over the last two centuries to provide the broadest and most in-depth history of progressive taxation available. Scheve and Stasavage explore the intellectual and political debates surrounding the taxation of the wealthy while also providing the most detailed examination to date of when taxes have been levied against the rich and when they haven't. Fairness in debates about taxing the rich has depended on different views of what it means to treat people as equals and whether taxing the rich advances or undermines this norm. Scheve and Stasavage argue that governments don't tax the rich just because inequality is high or rising—they do it when people believe that such taxes compensate for the state unfairly privileging the wealthy. Progressive taxation saw its heyday in the twentieth century, when compensatory arguments for taxing the rich focused on unequal sacrifice in mass warfare. Today, as technology gives rise to wars of more limited mobilization, such arguments are no longer persuasive. Taxing the Rich shows how the future of tax reform will depend on whether political and economic conditions allow for new compensatory arguments to be made.
Download or read book Democracies in Peril written by Ida Bastiaens and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2018-07-05 with total page 345 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explains the political factors behind the failure of many developing country democracies to benefit from globalization.
Download or read book The Triumph of Injustice How the Rich Dodge Taxes and How to Make Them Pay written by Emmanuel Saez and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2019-10-15 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book Justifying Taxes written by Agustín José Menéndez and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-03-14 with total page 379 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Justifying Taxes offers readers some of the elements of a democratic tax law, considered within its political and philosophical context in order to determine the extent of legitimate tax obligations. The objective is to revisit some of the issues in the dogmatics of tax law from the viewpoint of a critical citizen, always ready to ask questions about the justification underlying her obligations, and especially about her paramount burden, viz., the payment of certain amounts of money. Within this purview, special attention is paid to the general principles of taxation. The argument is complemented by a detailed reconstruction of constitutional reasoning in tax matters, close attention being paid to the jurisprudence of the Spanish Tribunal Constitucional. Readership: Legal scholars, political scientists and philosophers. Especially recommended to graduate and undergraduate students of Tax Law, Constitutional Law, Jurisprudence, Philosophy of Law and Political Theory.
Download or read book The Submerged State written by Suzanne Mettler and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2011-08-31 with total page 172 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Keep your government hands off my Medicare!” Such comments spotlight a central question animating Suzanne Mettler’s provocative and timely book: why are many Americans unaware of government social benefits and so hostile to them in principle, even though they receive them? The Obama administration has been roundly criticized for its inability to convey how much it has accomplished for ordinary citizens. Mettler argues that this difficulty is not merely a failure of communication; rather it is endemic to the formidable presence of the “submerged state.” In recent decades, federal policymakers have increasingly shunned the outright disbursing of benefits to individuals and families and favored instead less visible and more indirect incentives and subsidies, from tax breaks to payments for services to private companies. These submerged policies, Mettler shows, obscure the role of government and exaggerate that of the market. As a result, citizens are unaware not only of the benefits they receive, but of the massive advantages given to powerful interests, such as insurance companies and the financial industry. Neither do they realize that the policies of the submerged state shower their largest benefits on the most affluent Americans, exacerbating inequality. Mettler analyzes three Obama reforms—student aid, tax relief, and health care—to reveal the submerged state and its consequences, demonstrating how structurally difficult it is to enact policy reforms and even to obtain public recognition for achieving them. She concludes with recommendations for reform to help make hidden policies more visible and governance more comprehensible to all Americans. The sad truth is that many American citizens do not know how major social programs work—or even whether they benefit from them. Suzanne Mettler’s important new book will bring government policies back to the surface and encourage citizens to reclaim their voice in the political process.
Download or read book The Ideologies of Taxation written by Louis Eisenstein and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2010-04-30 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Originally published in 1961, The Ideologies of Taxation is a classic of taxationÑa long-unavailable volume that remains uniquely applicable today. Louis Eisenstein starts from the idea that the tax system in a democracy is shaped by competing factions, each seeking to minimize its burden. Because few people are convinced by appeals to self-interest, factions must give reasons, which are skillfully elaborated into systems of belief or ideologies. EisensteinÕs aim is to examine (and debunk) three major ideologies used to justify various reforms of the tax system. The ideology of ability holds that taxes should be apportioned based on ability to pay and that this is properly measured by income or wealth. The ideology of deterrents is concerned with high taxes on private enterpriseÑlow and flat taxes are desired lest the wealthy reduce their work efforts and savings. The ideology of equity is focused on equal treatment of similarly situated individuals. Eisenstein shows, with sharp wit and an instinct for the jugular, how each of these ideologies is plagued with contradictions, incompleteness, and, in some cases, self-serving claims.
