Can Candidates Activate or Deactivate the Economic Vote?

Abstract

Correcting the relative lack of attention to the revenue side of public finance, this article examines to what extent globalization constrains partisan tax policy. The author hypothesizes that political ideology is still a good predictor of taxation in the neoliberal era, advancing this argument against the prominent globalization thesis: that global economic pressures have supplanted political ideology as the driving force of revenue policy. Although research in developed democracies identifies a resilient link between partisanship and policy outcomes, the impact of the drastic neoliberal transition on partisan policy making in the developing world remains poorly understood. Using time-series cross-section data to evaluate partisan taxation in South America, the author finds that partisanship is a reliable indicator of tax revenue in the neoliberal era. Counterintuitively, however, the promarket Right generates more tax revenue than the interventionist Left. The author argues that this previously unexpected revenue gap is driven by ideological concerns for equity versus growth.

Citation

Hart, A. (2010). Death of the partisan? Globalization and taxation in South America, 1990–2006. Comparative Political Studies. https://doi.org/10.1177/0010414009352642