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1 - Introduction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 January 2021

Gabriel Ondetti
Affiliation:
Missouri State University
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Summary

Recent decades have seen large tax increases in Latin America. The conventional wisdom that Latin American tax systems generate too little revenue seems harder to sustain today than in the past. What continues to be striking about the region’s tax burdens, however, is the great disparity between them. This book sheds light on this question through a comparison of Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Mexico. It argues that tax burden variance reflects the impact of historical episodes of redistribution that threatened private property. Where they occurred, such episodes impeded future taxation by prompting economic elites and social conservatives to organize to defend their interests, thus forging strong, enduring anti-statist blocs. These blocs hindered taxation both directly, by combatting efforts to boost revenue, and indirectly, by undermining statist actors, especially labor unions. This introductory chapter consists of five sections: the first provides an overview of Latin American tax systems, the second reviews the scholarship on tax burden determinants, the third sketches the book’s argument, the fourth explains the research design and the fifth describes subsequent chapters.

Type
Chapter
Information
Property Threats and the Politics of Anti-Statism
The Historical Roots of Contemporary Tax Systems in Latin America
, pp. 1 - 25
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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  • Introduction
  • Gabriel Ondetti, Missouri State University
  • Book: Property Threats and the Politics of Anti-Statism
  • Online publication: 14 January 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108914147.002
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  • Introduction
  • Gabriel Ondetti, Missouri State University
  • Book: Property Threats and the Politics of Anti-Statism
  • Online publication: 14 January 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108914147.002
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Introduction
  • Gabriel Ondetti, Missouri State University
  • Book: Property Threats and the Politics of Anti-Statism
  • Online publication: 14 January 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108914147.002
Available formats
×