Social movement and tax reform: a comparative analysis of South American countries

2019 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 16K17047
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Politics
• Research Institution: The University of Tokyo (2017-2019); Tokyo University of Foreign Studies (2016)
• Principal Investigator: Miyachi Takahiro 東京大学, 大学院総合文化研究科, 准教授 (80580745)
• Project Period (FY): 2016-04-01 – 2020-03-31
• Keywords: ラテンアメリカ / 徴税

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Securing tax revenues to fund social policies is an important issue in Latin American countries, where the gap between rich and poor is notoriously high. This study was conducted based on the hypothesis that social pressure, represented by protests, affects significantly tax revenues.
Initially, I attempted to test the hypothesis by case studies. However, I changed the approach to quantitative analysis halfway through. The results of the analysis confirm that Latin American countries have in common increased their ability to collect taxes over the years. This suggests that experiences common to Latin American countries, rather than individual factors, including protests, are contributing to higher tax revenues. This common experience can be expected to be the consolidation of bureaucratic bodies since the 1990s, the technological innovations in collection, and the international sharing of this knowledge.

Free Research Field

政治学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

一般的に、行政改革は市民や政治家など国内のアクターが担うものであるが、本研究の成果は行政運営に対する知識やルールの国際的な整備や共有という国外的な要因の重要性を示唆する。これは、行政の構築は国内マターであるとは限らず、国外からも影響を与えうることを意味する。途上国の開発援助においてガバナンスの改善は重要なテーマであり続けているが、先進国がそれに携わる意義が裏付けられたものということができる。