State-Building and Tax Regimes in Central America [Paperback]

Explores the politics of raising revenue from the most dynamic sectors of an economy as an expression of the relationship between state and society, and the capacity of state institutions.This book asks how to get rich people to pay their taxes. More specifically, the book explores the politics of raising revenue from the most dynamic sectors of an economy as an expression of the relationship between state and society and the capacity of state institutions. In small, poor, and economically stratified countries like those of Central America, collecting revenues implies securing contributions from the most dynamic portions of the economy, yet these sectors currently and historically have been highly resistant to sharing their wealth with the rest of society, even if by sharing they could build states and long-term development.This book asks how to get rich people to pay their taxes. More specifically, the book explores the politics of raising revenue from the most dynamic sectors of an economy as an expression of the relationship between state and society and the capacity of state institutions. In small, poor, and economically stratified countries like those of Central America, collecting revenues implies securing contributions from the most dynamic portions of the economy, yet these sectors currently and historically have been highly resistant to sharing their wealth with the rest of society, even if by sharing they could build states and long-term development.In Central America, dynamic economic actors have inserted themselves into global markets. Elites atop these sectors attempt to advance a state-building project that will allow them to expand their activities and access political power, but they differ in their internal cohesion and their dominance with respect to other groups, especially previously constituted elites and popular sectors. Differences in resulting state-building patterns are expressed in the capacity to mobilize revenues from the most dynamic secl3