Overview

This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International licence. It is free to read at Oxford Academic and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations.This book examines the politics of revenue bargaining in Africa at a time when attention to domestic revenue mobilization has expanded immensely. Measures to increase taxes and other revenues can - but do not always - lead to a process of bargaining, where revenue providers negotiate for some kind of return. This book offers in-depth analyses of micro-instances of revenue bargaining across five African countries: Mozambique, Senegal, Tanzania, Togo, and Uganda. The case studies all draw on a common theoretical framework combining the fiscal contract theory with the political settlement approach, which enables a systematic exploration into what triggers revenue bargaining; how these processes unfold; and finally, if and when they result in an agreement - whether that is a fiscal contract or not. From these empirically rich case narratives emerges a story of how power and initial bargaining position influence not only whether bargaining occurs in the first place, but also the processes and their outcomes. Less resourceful taxpayers find it harder to raise their voice, but in some cases even these groups manage to ally with other civil society groups to protest tax reforms they perceive as unfair. Indirect taxes such as VAT often trigger protests, as do sudden changes in tax practices. Revenue providers rarely call for improved services in return for paying tax, which would be expected to nurture the foundation for a fiscal social contract. Instead, revenue providers are more likely to negotiate for tax reductions, implying that governments' efforts to increase revenue are impeded. Indeed, we find many instances of state-society reciprocity when ruling elites try to be responsive to revenue providers' demands. The Politics of Revenue Bargaining in Africa hence provides insights into the nature and dynamics not only of revenue bargaining but of policymaking in general as well as its implications for state-society reciprocity in Africa.

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9780192868787

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This book makes an important contribution to our understanding of the politics of taxation in developing countries. Using a novel framework, drawing from the fiscal contracts and political settlements literature, the book studies the politics of revenue bargaining in Sub-Saharan Africa, and shows how and under what conditions micro-level fiscal contracts may emerge. A must read for scholars in development studies, economics, political science and sociology, and for practitioners. * Kunal Sen, Director, UNU-WIDER *

Author Information

Anne Mette Kjær is a Professor of Political Science at Aarhus University with a focus on the Politics of Development. She holds a PhD in Political Science and 25 years of experience in development research and practice. She has taught and researched in the fields of public administration, governance, and development, and has contributed to international research on a wide range of related issues. She currently chairs the Council for Development Policy. Marianne S. Ulriksen is Associate Professor at the Danish Centre for Welfare Studies, Department of Political Science, University of Southern Denmark (SDU) and Senior Research Associate to the Centre for Social Development in Africa, University of Johannesburg. She heads the interdisciplinary project JUST SOCIETY at SDU. Her research areas include political economy of welfare policy development; social protection, state-society relations, and social justice; poverty and inequality; and resource mobilization and taxation with a primary focus on Southern and Eastern Africa. Ane Karoline Bak is Assistant Professor at the Danish Centre for Welfare Studies, Department of Political Science, University of Southern Denmark, where she works on the JUST SOCIETY project. Her research examines the politics of taxation and the role of taxation in state-society relations and (welfare) state building through mainly qualitative and comparative methods. Her empirical focus has been on sub-Saharan Africa, specializing in Senegal in particular.

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