Taxing Reforms

Reviews / Votes

'The book provides a useful review of a wide range of recent literature dealing with the interaction of ideas, interests and institutions in shaping the politics and outcomes of policy reform efforts in democratic countries, as well as an excellent illustration of how these ideas can be synthesized and used to compare, in a systematic and revealing way, policy episodes in quite different countries. It is an impressive scholarly achievement that deserves attention not only from the limited group of policy scholars with interests in taxation but also from anyone interested in either comparative politics or in understanding how and at what price significant policy changes may sometimes be achieved even in unpromising circumstances.' -- Richard M. Bird, Canadian Journal of Public Administration 'Taxing Reforms is a good short book about the comparative policies of Value Added Taxation (VAT) in Australia, Canada, Japan and the United States. . . Taxing Reforms is a fine book, well worth reading, especially for specialists in the comparative political economy of taxation. . . its richly detailed case studies will make it a fruitful source of comparative hypotheses.' -- Isaac W. Martin, Journal of Economic Literature 'Richard Eccleston's book, Taxing Reforms, is commendable both because it makes an important contribution to our substantive knowledge about the politics of consumption taxes and also because it is one of the rare attempts to systematically compare an important policy arena across four distinct democracies. Thus we learn both about the politics of consumption taxation and about how four different democracies address some of the most difficult policy choices any country can face. The book will be of great interest to students of comparative politics and public policy alike.' -- Sven Steinmo, European University Institute (EUI), Italy