The politics of tax justice in democracies: redistribution beyond the median voter theorem

Hopkin, Jonathan ORCID: 0000-0002-3187-4013 (2022) The politics of tax justice in democracies: redistribution beyond the median voter theorem. LSE Public Policy Review, 2 (4). ISSN 2633-4046

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Abstract

Democratic states tend to raise large shares of national income through taxes, and spend the money in ways which redistribute resources from higher to lower income groups. This connection between democratic politics and taxes is a commonplace of the political economy scholarship, but there is much less clarity about the mechanisms through which this redistribution occurs, and the reasons for variations in the degree to which the objectives of social justice are achieved. Democracy can coexist with quite large differences in overall income inequality, and these differences are often driven by institutional legacies that find their roots in the past. The scope for the usual tools of democratic governance – elections and political party programmes – to alter these paths are more limited than is often understood. The contemporary politics of taxation appears to offer very constrained choices to policymakers, but the aspirations of voters for redistribution through the tax system remain a fundamental feature of political competition and conflict in the rich democracies.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	© 2024 The Author
Divisions:	European Institute
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HB Economic Theory
JEL classification:	H - Public Economics > H2 - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue > H20 - General
Date Deposited:	23 Apr 2024 11:36
Last Modified:	12 Dec 2024 04:09
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/122757

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