Politicians and Economic Reform in New Democracies

"This book focuses attention on differences in institutional structure, in political parties and electoral rules, to show how they create incentives that can explain the varying ways in which legislators respond to policy initiatives from the executive branch." "In Argentina and the Philippines, presidents proposed similar fiscal reforms in the 1990s; expanding tax bases, strengthening tax administration, and redesigning tax revenue-sharing with subnational governments. Drawing on archival research and interviews with policymakers, Kent Eaton follows the path of legislation in these three areas from initial proposal to final law to reveal how it was shaped by the legislators participating in the process. Obstacles to the adoption of reform, he demonstrates, are greater in candidate-centered systems like the Philippines' (where the cultivation of personal reputations is paramount) than in party-centered systems like Argentina's (where loyalty to party leaders is emphasized)." "To test his argument further, Eaton looks finally at other kinds of reform ventures in these two countries and at tax reforms attempted in some other countries."--BOOK JACKET.

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Nonfiction. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.