[go: up one dir, main page]
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/gigawp/32.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

How Does Neopatrimonialism Affect the African State? The Case of Tax Collection in Zambia

Author

Listed:
  • von Soest, Christian
Abstract
Following the neopatrimonialism paradigm, it can be hypothesised that in African states informal politics of the rulers infringe on the collection of taxes and in turn reduce state revenues. This article tests this proposition for the case of Zambia. The main finding is that there is no linear correlation between a neopatrimonial system and the collection of taxes. Neopatrimonial continuity in the country is evidenced by three factors; the concentration of political power, the award of personal favours and the misuse of state resources. Despite this continuity, the revenue performance has increased considerably with the creation of the semi-autonomous Zambia Revenue Authority. This demonstrates that the effect of neopatrimonialism on public policy in the African state is highly context-specific and dependent on the interaction with additional variables. Donor pressure has been the most important in the Zambian case. In order to apply neopatrimonialism for further empirical work on public policy in the African state, these additional variables have to be incorporated into the analysis.

Suggested Citation

  • von Soest, Christian, 2006. "How Does Neopatrimonialism Affect the African State? The Case of Tax Collection in Zambia," GIGA Working Papers 32, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:gigawp:32
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/47799/1/605330042.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Erdmann, Gero & Engel, Ulf, 2006. "Neopatrimonialism Revisited - Beyond a Catch-All Concept," GIGA Working Papers 16, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies.
    2. Odd-Helge Fjeldstad, 2002. "Fighting fiscal corruption: The case of the Tanzania Revenue Authority," CMI Working Papers WP 2002:3, CMI (Chr. Michelsen Institute), Bergen, Norway.
    3. World Bank, 2003. "Zambia : Public Expenditure Management and Financial Accountability Review," World Bank Publications - Reports 14695, The World Bank Group.
    4. World Bank, 2003. "Zambia - Public Expenditure Management and Financial Accountability Review : Country Financial Accountability Assessment, Annex, Volume 2," World Bank Publications - Reports 14656, The World Bank Group.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Lise Rakner, 2012. "Foreign Aid and Democratic Consolidation in Zambia," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2012-016, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    2. Rachel M. Gisselquist & Stefan Leiderer & Miguel Niño-Zarazúa, 2014. "Ethnic Heterogeneity and Public Goods Provision in Zambia: Further Evidence of a Subnational 'Diversity Dividend'," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2014-162, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    3. Piccolino, Giulia, 2014. "A Democratic Rentier State? Taxation, Aid Dependency, and Political Representation in Benin," GIGA Working Papers 253, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies.
    4. Gisselquist, Rachel M. & Leiderer, Stefan & Niño-Zarazúa, Miguel, 2014. "Ethnic heterogeneity and public goods provision in Zambia: Further evidence of a subnational 'diversity dividend'," WIDER Working Paper Series 162, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    5. Patrick Francois & Ilia Rainer & Francesco Trebbi, 2014. "The Dictator's Inner Circle," NBER Working Papers 20216, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Rose,Jonathan & Gowthaman,Balachandran, 2015. "Civil service recruitment in Comoros : a case of political clientelism in a decentralized state," Policy Research Working Paper Series 7428, The World Bank.
    7. Stroh, Alexander, 2007. "Crafting Political Institutions in Africa. Electoral Systems and Systems of Government in Rwanda and Zambia Compared," GIGA Working Papers 43, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies.
    8. Melia, Elvis, 2020. "African jobs in the digital era: Export options with a focus on online labour," IDOS Discussion Papers 3/2020, German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS).
    9. Rakner, Lise, 2012. "Foreign Aid and Democratic Consolidation in Zambia," WIDER Working Paper Series 016, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    10. Bechle, Karsten, 2010. "Neopatrimonialism in Latin America: Prospects and Promises of a Neglected Concept," GIGA Working Papers 153, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. von Soest, Christian, 2006. "Measuring the Capability to Raise Revenue: Process and Output Dimensions and Their Application to the Zambia Revenue Authority," GIGA Working Papers 35, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies.
    2. Monica Beuran & Gaël Raballand & Julio Revilla, 2011. "Improving Aid Effectiveness in Aid-Dependent Countries: Lessons from Zambia," Documents de travail du Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne 11040, Université Panthéon-Sorbonne (Paris 1), Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne.
    3. Monica Beuran & Gaël Raballand & Julio Revilla, 2011. "Improving aid effectiveness in aid-dependent countries : lessons from Zambia," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) halshs-00611901, HAL.
    4. Mubanga Mpundu & Jane Mwafulirwa & Mutinta Chaampita & Notulu Salwindi, 2019. "Effects of Public Expenditure on Gross Domestic Product in Zambia from 1980-2017: An ARDL Methodology Approach," Journal of Economics and Behavioral Studies, AMH International, vol. 11(2), pages 103-111.
    5. Hodder Rupert, 2016. "Global South and North: Why Informality Matters," New Global Studies, De Gruyter, vol. 10(2), pages 113-131, July.
    6. Gregory, Julian & Sovacool, Benjamin K., 2019. "Rethinking the governance of energy poverty in sub-Saharan Africa: Reviewing three academic perspectives on electricity infrastructure investment," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 344-354.
    7. Auriol, Emmanuelle & Warlters, Michael, 2012. "The marginal cost of public funds and tax reform in Africa," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(1), pages 58-72.
    8. Mikhail Drugov & John Hamman & Danila Serra, 2014. "Intermediaries in corruption: an experiment," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 17(1), pages 78-99, March.
    9. Bjorvatn, Kjetil & Torsvik, Gaute & Tungodden, Bertil, 2004. "How middle-men can undermine anti-corruption reforms," Working Papers in Economics 12/04, University of Bergen, Department of Economics.
    10. Bjoern Dressel & Jim Brumby, 2012. "Enhancing Capabilities of Central Finance Agencies : From Diagnosis to Action," World Bank Publications - Reports 12752, The World Bank Group.
    11. Epaphra, Manamba, 2015. "Tax Rates and Tax Evasion: Evidence from Missing Imports in Tanzania," MPRA Paper 62328, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Espen Villanger, 2003. "Company influence on foreign aid disbursement: Is conditionality credible when donors have mixed motives?," CMI Working Papers WP 2003:4, CMI (Chr. Michelsen Institute), Bergen, Norway.
    13. Joseph R.A Ayee, 2005. "Working Paper 82 - Public Sector Management in Africa," Working Paper Series 217, African Development Bank.
    14. Fredriksson, Anders, 2014. "Bureaucracy intermediaries, corruption and red tape," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 256-273.
    15. World Bank, 2004. "Investment Climate Assessment : Improving Enterprise Performance and Growth in Tanzania," World Bank Publications - Reports 14413, The World Bank Group.
    16. Warlters, Michael & Auriol, Emmanuelle, 2005. "The marginal cost of public funds in Africa," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3679, The World Bank.
    17. Thomas Isbell, 2024. "Where You Sit Is Where You Stand: Perceived (In)Equality and Demand for Democracy in Africa," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 174(3), pages 817-836, September.
    18. Lund, Jens Friis & Treue, Thorsten, 2008. "Are We Getting There? Evidence of Decentralized Forest Management from the Tanzanian Miombo Woodlands," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 36(12), pages 2780-2800, December.
    19. Fjeldstad, Odd-Helge, 2013. "Taxation and Development : A Review of Donor Support to Strengthen Tax Systems in Developing Countries," WIDER Working Paper Series 010, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    20. AfDB AfDB, 2005. "Working Paper 82 - Public Sector Management in Africa," Working Paper Series 2296, African Development Bank.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:zbw:gigawp:32. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dueiide.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.