Tax Collection in Developing Countries – New Evidence on Semi-Autonomous Revenue Agencies (SARAs)

Abstract

Over the last two decades, semi-autonomous revenue agencies (SARAs) have become a key element of public administration reform. They are supposed to improve revenue mobilisation and stabilise state–taxpayer relations. But do SARAs really outperform conventional tax administrations? This article argues that they do. Presenting the results of a panel analysis of local tax collection in Peru between 1998 and 2011, it shows that municipalities with SARAs collect more revenue than those with conventional tax administrations. The results also indicate that local revenue is more stable in municipalities with SARAs, which is good for budget policy and planning.     

Mobility in pastoral societies of Northern Mali: Perspectives on social and political rationales

Since the 1980s, the so-called “nomadic” populations in the regions of Northern Mali and Niger have embarked on an extensive process of settlement. Today they mostly live in villages or “settlement sites”. But, at the same time, individuals and small groups among these same populations have considerably enlarged their area of mobility and accelerated the rate and the value of the trade in which they engage. These two phenomena could, at first sight, appear contradictory. But the observation of empirical situations shows, rather, compatibilities, similarities even, between these two concomitant phenomena. Building on innovative debates conducted in geography and sociology, this article puts forward the hypothesis that the building of villages, as well as integration into military bases and barracks, proceeds from (social) rationales of mobility, just as much as transhumance, journeys, migration. Much more than a simple displacement in space, the notion of mobility could describe an “art of doing”, a way of being to others and to the world.     

构造我国多元化的金融监管体系

我国金融监管的历史与发达国家相比还较短,在监管信息的采集、监管法规的建设、监管人才的培养和业务知识的更新等方面都亟待加强和完善.借鉴发达国家金融监管的成功经验,最重要的是构筑立体多元化的金融监管体系,而目前要抓好银行监管观念创新,健全金融监管机制,设置防范金融风险,建立银行内部控制体系,加强国际金融业监管的交流与合作.     

城中村社会保障机制构建的路径选择——基于制度关联视角的分析

城乡统筹背景下的城中村社会保障是城市化进程中值得关注的问题,制度间的失衡与悖论是城中村社会保障机制的构建和社会关系的有序与和谐的制度性障碍。本文通过制度关联这一理论工具,在总结目前城中村社会保障机制类型的基础上,认为整体联动的、渐进式的、强致性和诱致性相结合的路径符合我国建立城中村社会保障的实际,为失地农民社会保障提供政策向导。     

The catch‐all party thesis and the Austrian social democrats

This article examines Kirchheimer's catch‐all party thesis systematically, using the example of the Austrian Socialist Party (SPÖ). First, five central elements of the Kirchheimer catch‐all party are identified and possibilities for empirical research are explored. Then the empirical evidence on these five dimensions is analysed. As Kirchheimer has expected, the SPÖ's ‘ideological baggage’ has been drastically reduced, its top leadership groups and its electoral leader in particular have been further strengthened, the working‐class clientele has been de‐emphasised, and the party's function in the political system has been substantially reduced. Concerning the SPÖ's link to interest groups, however, Kirchheimer's thesis is only valid when looking at the most recent period. In view of the cumulative effect of the changes in the direction of a catch‐all party the SPÖ of the 1990s can definitely be classified as a catch‐all party.