A Democratic Rentier State? Taxation, Aid Dependency, and Political Representation in Benin

Public Opinion , Political Representation , and Democratic Choice

Title of dissertation: PUBLIC OPINION, POLITICAL REPRESENTATION, AND DEMOCRATIC CHOICE Michael J. Zenz, Doctor of Philosophy, 2015 Dissertation directed by: Assistant Professor Eric Pacuit Professor Christopher W. Morris Department of Philosophy In this dissertation I argue that political representatives have duties to be responsive to public opinion in their policy decisions. The existence of ...

On taxation, political accountability and foreign aid: empirics to a celebrated literature

The Eubank (2012, JDS) findings on taxation, political accountability and foreign aid has had an important influence in academic and policy-making debates. Eubank has warned that his findings should not be generalized across Africa until they are backed by robust empirical evidence. This paper puts some empirical structure to the celebrated literature. The empirical evidence which is based on d...

Foreign aid and taxation, revisited∗

Existing research into the relationship between foreign aid and taxation in recipient countries has both conceptual and econometric failings. Empirical results based upon observed tax revenues conflate the effect of aid upon tax structures with the effect upon flows of taxable economic activity, most notably the level of imports. The use of variables normalized by GDP is also likely to generate...

State Formation Processes in Rentier States:

Non-Taxation and Representation: Distribution, Redistribution, and Political Stability in the Modern World

Might foreign aid and oil revenues have similar effects on political regimes? Drawing upon formal modeling, cross-national statistical analysis, and in-depth case studies, my dissertation explores the relationship between patterns of government revenue generation and political regime stability. Existing research has devoted surprisingly limited attention to variations in the sources of governme...