Private Wealth and Public Revenue in Latin America

Business Power and Tax Politics

Tasha Fairfield

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN:
  9781107088375
• eBook ISBN:
  9781316310137
• Topic: Política y relaciones internacionales
• Subtopic: Gobierno estadounidense

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.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title
• Title page
• Copyright information
• Table of contents
• List of figures anf tables
• List of acronyms
• Acknowledgments
• 1 Tax Policy and Economic Elites
• 2 The Power of Economic Elites
• 3 Organized Business and Direct Taxation in Chile
• 4 Circumventing Business Power in Chile
• 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
• 9 Tax Developments under Left Rule in Bolivia and Right Rule in Chile
• 10 Conclusions
• Appendix 1.1 Latin America’s Tax Problem
• Appendix 1.2 Tax Revenue and Commodity Booms
• Appendix 1.3 Case Selection
• Appendix 4.1 Chilean Case Universe
• Appendix 5.1 Expected Revenue Yield of Direct Tax Reforms
• References
• Index