Taxation, Political Accountability and Foreign Aid: Lessons from Somaliland

Nicholas Eubank ()

Journal of Development Studies, 2012, vol. 48, issue 4, 465-480

Abstract: For years, studies of state formation in early and medieval Europe have argued that the modern, representative state emerged as the result of negotiations between autocratic governments in need of tax revenues and citizens who were only willing to consent to taxation in exchange for greater government accountability. This article presents evidence that similar dynamics shaped the formation of Somaliland's democratic government. In particular, it shows that government dependency on local tax revenues -- which resulted from its ineligibility for foreign assistance -- provided those outside the government with the leverage needed to force the development of inclusive, representative and accountable political institutions.

Date: 2012
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (140)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/00220388.2011.598510 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:jdevst:v:48:y:2012:i:4:p:465-480

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/FJDS20

DOI: 10.1080/00220388.2011.598510

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Development Studies is currently edited by Howard White, Oliver Morrissey and Ken Shadlen

More articles in Journal of Development Studies from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().