Regressive Taxation and the Welfare State: Path Dependence and Policy Diffusion (Cambridge Studies in Comparative Politics) - Hardcover

Kato, Junko

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0521824524 ISBN 13: 9780521824521

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2003

Synopsis

Regressive Taxation and the Welfare State This book sheds fresh light on the neglected subject of taxation and welfare.

About this title

Review

"Too few political scientists have seriously examined the politics of taxation and the role it has in the political economy of modern states. Junko Kato's Regressive Taxation and the Welfare State bridges a major gap in understanding of the financing of the modern state. Her intriguing argument challenges the naive notion that progressive states must be financed through progressive taxes and in doing so, it makes an important contribution to the policy debate across the OECD." Sven Steinmo, University of Colorado

"Recent theories of globalization have presented us with a very strong argument, namely that economic integration forces modern welfare states to converge. In this truly comparative and well-researched book, Junko Kato delivers an intriguing result. It is a genuinely counter-intuitive, yet very convincing argument about the importance of the institutional foundation of the taxation side of welfare states. In this, Kato successfully challenges several well-established theories in comparative politics. The puzzle she portrays and explains is theoretically important for our understanding of the increasing variation in size between modern welfare states." Bo Rothstein, Goteborg University

"Overall, Kato provides a compelling mix of quantitative and qualitative data to equip the reader with some useful tools for considering what is at stake in the ongoing debate over the future of welfare state funding." Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare

Book Description

Government size has become the most important policy difference between the left and right in post-war politics but the formation of the government's funding base is also important. In this book, Kato finds that the differentiation of tax revenue structure is path dependent upon the shift to regressive taxation.

About this edition

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0521824524
• ISBN 13: 9780521824521
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 278