The Politics of Taxation in Canada

Table des matières

1. Introduction

Part I: The Context of Canada's Tax System

2. The Tax System and the Politics of Ideas

3. The Tax System as Economic Constitution

4. The Tax Policy Community: Institutions and Processes

5. The Public Tax Policy Process: Agenda-Setting, Interest Groups, and Public Opinion

Part II: The Politics of Taxation from Carter to Martin

6. The Tax Reform Pendulum: The Politics of Taxation During the Trudeau Era

7. The Mulroney Legacy: Tax Reform, Free Trade, and the Deficit Trap

8. The Politics of Sales Tax Reform

9. Chrétien, Martin, and the Politics of Deficit Reduction

Part III: The Politics of Taxation in the Twenty-first Century: Balancing National, Regional, and Global Pressures

10. Living Standards and the Politics of Personal Taxation

11. Globalization, Domestic Politics, and Business Taxation

12. Taxation, Federalism, and the Provinces

13. Taxation, the Family, and Civil Society

Conclusion: The Politics of Taxation and the New Economy

Glossary

Selected Bibliography

Index

La description

Finalist for the 2002 Donner Prize

The balancing of government budgets after years of chronic deficits has reopened public debates over tax levels, the size of government and proposals for tax reform. The Politics of Taxation in Canada explains the factors that have shaped the evolution of Canada’s tax system since the 1960s and the issues that are likely to challenge governments in coming years. It outlines the nature and objectives of Canada’s tax system, the organizational and institutional structures that define and control it, and the political processes that enable politicians to manage policy changes—subject to competing pressures from voters and organized interest groups.

Political scientist Geoffrey Hale describes the major elements of Canada’s tax system as parts of an "economic constitution" that affects the daily lives of Canadians as much as the political constitution that defines the powers and limits of governments and the rights of citizens. The principles of Canada’s tax system reflect a loose and evolving political consensus on social and economic priorities. Hale suggests that to be politically and economically workable, proposals for major tax changes "must begin with the tax system as it is, not as we might wish it to be in the best of all possible worlds. "