Taxing for Development: Contested Ideas, the State and Commodity Taxes

PDF年的目的是最大限度地发挥我的核心博士研究的影响，探索税收的想法如何影响税收，财政政策和最终的发展轨迹。我探讨了在2001年阿根廷债务违约后，历史上有争议的对农村地区农业生产者征收的出口税是如何在国家危机中暂时合法化的。在此过程中，我探讨了税收的社会方面以及危机时期的紧急治理和税收。然而，我认为，当危机缓解时，税收变得政治化，但税收仍然存在。现在，税收推动的福利支出和财富再分配的增加，与一个有争议的国家愿景而不是危机复苏联系在一起。我的一个核心论点是，税收的观念与国家在社会经济生活中应该扮演什么角色的对立观念交织在一起。仅仅说脆弱的机构或受到冲击的利益集团要对阿根廷的重大税收反抗和政治变革负责是不够的。相反，重要的是反对税收的想法。更广泛的论点是，未能围绕税收建立社会共识可能会对税收征收和再分配造成障碍。为了提供这一分析，我应用了历史社会学和政治经济学的理论框架，以更好地理解税收是如何合法化的发展目的。在博士论文中，我得出了三个主要结论。首先，税收是有争议的，随后的世纪阿根廷政府都绕过了棘手的税收问题，而是选择了债务主导的发展战略。在这样做的过程中，没有就出口税达成社会共识。第二，2001/02年的紧急情况赋予了出口税暂时的合法性，因为出口税是作为紧急税提出的，但它们只在应对危机时才是合法的;当税收被认为是为干预主义国家模式提供资金时，税收被拒绝。第三，我认为这场辩论超越了单纯关于税收的辩论，但税收成为了其他因素结合在一起的断层线。政府卷入了一场更广泛的政治辩论，但这场辩论与税收密不可分，因为这些税收的想法与总统正在建设的国家类型密不可分。梳理了这项研究的影响，我建议在PDF年，以扩大未充分研究的概念，税收的想法，并在更广泛的地理范围内的研究。首先，我将通过参与“新财政社会学”的新兴子领域建立一个新的概念框架，并将此框架应用于拉丁美洲和撒哈拉以南非洲发展中国家税收的更广泛挑战。这两个区域都面临着共同的财政挑战：殖民遗留问题、出口导向型发展、机构薄弱、税收制度分散以及在某些情况下政治不稳定。然而，我将讨论为什么反对税收的想法，以及“国家与市场”的辩论不应该从税收政策的讨论中打折。我还将纳入联邦税收和再分配的问题，这是一个领域没有明确探讨的博士学位，但一个值得进一步探索，因为它是一个领域，可以创建一个障碍，税收征收。PDF工作计划将建立在我的博士研究的基础上，为税收政策辩论做出一些贡献。它对围绕税收设计建立社会共识的重要性进行了细致入微的分析，并揭示了如果没有达成共识，税收会有多么有争议。它对发展中国家税收改革合法化的挑战进行了批判性和现代性的评估。最后，它提供了定性的见解，说明加强发展中国家税收制度的有效性不仅应注重弥合利益和加强机构，而且应注重引导对立的思想。

The PDF year is intended to maximise the impact of my core PhD research exploring how ideas of tax impact upon tax collection, fiscal policy and ultimately development trajectories. I explored how historically contentious export taxes on agricultural producers in rural areas were temporarily legitimised by the national crisis following the Argentine debt default in 2001. In doing so, I explored social aspects of tax collection and also emergency governance and taxation in times of crisis. However, I argued that the taxes then became politicised when the crisis abated but the taxes remained. Now augmented welfare spending and wealth redistribution that the taxes were driving became associated with a contested vision of state and not one of crisis recovery. One of my central arguments was that ideas of tax became enmeshed with opposing ideas of what role the state should play in socio-economic life. It was not sufficient to say that that weak institutions or interests that were impinged were responsible for a major tax revolt and political change in Argentina. Rather, it was opposing ideas of tax that mattered. The broader argument was that a failure to build social consensus around tax can create barriers to tax collection and redistribution.To provide this analysis, I applied a theoretical framework drawing from Historical Sociology and Political Economy to better understand how tax is legitimated for developmental purposes. In the PhD I made three principal conclusions. First, tax is contentious and subsequent twentieth century Argentine governments had bypassed asking difficult tax questions by instead choosing debt-led development strategies. In doing so, no social consensus around export taxes was ever built. Second, the emergency situation in 2001/02 bestowed temporary legitimacy as export taxes were presented as emergency taxes but they were only legitimate for crisis response; when taxes were perceived to be funding an interventionalist state model, the tax was rejected. Third, I argued that the debate transcended one solely about tax, but tax became the fault line around which other factors coalesced. The government became embroiled in a wider political debate but one that the taxes could not be separated from because ideas of these taxes were inextricably linked with the type of state the president was building. Teasing out the implications of this research, I propose in the PDF year to expand the understudied concept of tax ideas and situate the research in a wider geographical context. First, I will build a new conceptual framework by engaging with the emerging sub-field of' New Fiscal Sociology' and empirically apply this framework to the wider challenges of tax collection in developing countries in Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa. Both regions face shared fiscal challenges: colonial legacies, export-led development, weak institutions, fragmented tax systems and in some cases political instability. However, I will argue why opposing ideas of tax, and debates of 'state versus market' should not be discounted from tax policy discussions. I will also incorporate questions of federal taxation and redistribution, which is an area not explicitly explored in the PhD but one which warrants further exploration as it is an area that can create a barrier to tax collection. The PDF programme of work will build on my PhD research to make a number of contributions to tax policy debates. It offers a nuanced analysis of the importance of building social consensus around tax design and lays bare how contentious tax can be if consensus is not reached. It offers a critical and contemporary evaluation of the challenges of legitimising tax reforms in developing countries. Finally, it offers qualitative insights into how strengthening the effectiveness of tax systems in developing countries should not only focus on bridging interests and strengthening institutions but on navigating opposing ideas.