The tax-welfare mix: explaining Japan's weak extractive capacity

Abstract

Despite having the highest level of public debt in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), higher than Greece or Italy, Japan has one of the lowest aggregate tax burdens of the advanced industrial democracies. This paper asks why Japan, once described as a strong developmental state, has had such a weak extractive capacity, an inability to raise revenues to confront deficits and public debt? In contrast to the existing explanations that focus on political institutions, partisan preferences, or economic globalization, this article argues that Japan's ‘tax–welfare mix’ – the combination of taxes and redistributive welfare polices – undermined the state's long-term capacity to secure adequate tax revenue. More than just a source of revenue, taxes can be used directly to achieve redistributive goals, such as targeting low taxes and exemptions to specific groups. This study shows how Japan's tax–welfare mix diminished its extractive capacity through three mechanisms: the political lock-in of a redistributive social bargain struck around low taxes, the timing and sequencing of its tax policy and welfare development, and the erosion of public trust, which undermined tax consent. Beyond offering a new theory of extractive capacity, the tax–welfare mix explains aspects of Japan's tax structure that defy existing explanations and contributes to our understanding of the capitalist development state by highlighting the redistributive political function of tax policy and its long-term impact on state capacity.     

Personnel Constraints in Public Organizations: The Impact of Reward and Punishment on Organizational Performance

In recent years, many public sector reforms have attempted to loosen personnel constraints on the assumption that more managerial flexibility will increase organizational performance. The authors mount an empirical study to test this assumption using data taken from English local government authorities. Personnel constraints are operationalized using Rainey's long‐standing measures of the concept. Statistical results from multiple regression analyses indicate that “difficulty in removing poor managers” is harmful to organizational performance, but “difficulty in rewarding good managers” has no effect. The authors delve inside the organizational hierarchy and find that attitudes toward personnel constraints vary by organizational level and managerial rank: for example, frontline managers feel more constrained overall, while senior managers’ perceptions of constraints are more closely linked to organizational performance but in some unexpected ways. The implications of these findings, including the fact that personnel constraints have varying impacts on organizational performance, are considered.     

Use of a solid absorbent and an accelerant detection canine for the detection of ignitable liquids burned in a structure fire

ABSTRACT: Ignitable Liquid Absorbent^™ (ILA), a commercial solid absorbent intended to assist fire scene investigators in sample location and collection, has been field tested in three separate room fires. The ability of the ILA to detect and absorb different amounts of gasoline, odorless paint thinner, and camp fuel on two different substrates after a full-scale burn was assessed against results from an accelerant detection canine and laboratory analysis using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The canine correctly alerted on most of the panels that contained an ignitable liquid after the fire, while the ILA indicator dye failed to indicate in the presence of gasoline and camp fuel. GC-MS results for ignitable liquid residue from each panel and from the ILA showed that ILA absorbed odorless paint thinner and camp fuel from most of the test panels, but failed to absorb gasoline from the panels on which gasoline was confirmed to be present.     

“案例指导制度”的历史探寻

判例法和成文法相结合,就是混合法。历史上,中国经历了三次判例法和成文法的结合。以下简单回顾一下中国混合法的三次“轮回”。     

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中国内地与香港媒体诽谤问题比较研究

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依法治国与金融法改革

进人新世纪以来,我国在政治、经济、社会体制等方面的改革稳步推进,取得了卓有成效的长足进步。我国正处於社会转型阶段。面临转型期的复杂经济形势,必须牢固深化经济体制改革的决心,紧紧围绕使市场在资源配置中起决定性作用来推进改革,坚持和完善基本经济制度,加快完善现代市场体系、宏观调控体系、开放型经济体系。当中尤其要不断建立健全完善、成熟的现代金融体系和配套的法律规律体系,并紧跟互联网时代的技术发展做出适时调整。     

依法改革,立法先行

正2014年3月9日上午,張德江委員長在全國人大常委會工作報告中鄭重指出:「堅持把立法決策與改革決策更好結合起來,抓緊制定和修改同全面深化改革相關的法律,從法律制度上推動和落實改革舉措,充分發揮立法在引領、推動和保障改革方面的重要作用」。這與習近平總書記所強調的「凡屬重大改革都要於法有據、先立後破、有序進行」前後呼應、一脈相承,進一步展示了執政黨堅持依法執政、建設法治     

中央政府权力结构的改革与转型

政府权力结构是指政府内部的机构设置、职能配置及各机构间的相互关系。在行政管理体制中,政府权力结构具有重要地位。无论是政府的职能履行、管理方式,还是权力运行机制,都受制於政府权力结构。