State-Building and Tax Regimes in Central America

Explores the politics of raising revenue from the most dynamic sectors of an economy as an expression of the relationship between state and society, and the capacity of state institutions.

Aaron Schneider (Author)

9781107019096, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 12 March 2012

260 pages, 11 b/w illus. 25 tables
23.3 x 15.8 x 1.8 cm, 0.49 kg

“State-Building and Tax Regimes in Central America offers several important contributions. First, it represents the most robust analysis of tax policy in Central America to date. Second, and more generally, Schneider advances our knowledge of the political economy of globalization, especially the ways in which it influences specific policy outputs. Finally, by focusing on the myriad actors and institutions that play a role in shaping political processes, this book will resonate with readers and researchers whose interests extend far beyond tax policy in Central America.” -Matthew A. Johnson, Tulane University, Comparative Political Studies

In Central America, dynamic economic actors have inserted themselves into global markets. Elites atop these sectors attempt to advance a state-building project that will allow them to expand their activities and access political power, but they differ in their internal cohesion and their dominance with respect to other groups, especially previously constituted elites and popular sectors. Differences in resulting state-building patterns are expressed in the capacity to mobilize revenues from the most dynamic sectors in quantities sufficient to undertake public endeavors and in a relatively universal fashion across sectors. Historical, quantitative and qualitative detail on the five countries of Central America are followed by a focus on El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala. The greatest changes have occurred in El Salvador, and Honduras has made some advances, although they are almost as quickly reversed by incentives, exemptions and special arrangements for particular producers. Guatemala has raised revenues only marginally and failed to address problems of inequity across sectors and between rich and poor.

1. Revenues, states, and Central America
2. State-building in a globalized political economy
3. Historical junctures in Central American state-building and tax
4. 1990s transnational integration: quantitative evaluation of socioeconomic actors, democratic institutions, and tax regimes
5. Inside-out state-building in El Salvador: dominant and cohesive transnational elites
6. Outside-in state-building in Honduras: dominant but divided transnational elites
7. Crisis in Guatemalan state-building: divided, subordinate transnational elites
8. Conclusion: state-building and tax in developing countries.

Subject Areas: Government powers [LNDH], Comparative politics [JPB], Hispanic & Latino studies [JFSL4]