'Ranging across continents and political regimes, Brautigam, Fjeldstad, Moore and their colleagues provide lucid, dispassionate analysis of one of the most crucial issues in the contemporary political economy of development. Taxes are the cornerstone of any modern society, but for poor countries the capacity to tax can be the difference between chaos and development. This book skillfully dissects the ways in which global models have failed to serve the interests of poor countries and provides careful suggestions as to what actually works. Policy-makers and scholars alike should be grateful to have such a well-crafted, finely-balanced contribution to a topic too often mired in polemic and ideology.' Peter Evans, University of California, Berkeley
1. Introduction: taxation and state-building in developing countries Deborah Bräutigam; 2. Between coercion and contract: competing narratives on taxation and governance Mick Moore; 3. Capacity, consent and tax collection in post-communist states Gerald M. Easter; 4. Taxation and coercion in rural China Thomas P. Bernstein and Xiaobo Lü; 5. Mass taxation and state–society relations in East Africa Odd-Helge Fjeldstad and Ole Therkildsen; 6. Contingent capacity: export taxation and state-building in Mauritius Deborah Bräutigam; 7. Tax bargaining and nitrate exports: Chile 1880-1930 Carmenza Gallo; 8. Associational taxation: a pathway into the informal sector? Anuradha Joshi and Joseph Ayee; 9. Rethinking institutional capacity and tax regimes: the case of the sino-foreign salt inspectorate in republican China Julia Strauss; 10. Tax reform and state-building in a globalised world Odd-Helge Fjeldstad and Mick Moore.