Less aid and more democracy in Somaliland?

[petagny]

Here's an interesting article from the Guardian. It suggests that democratic accountability might actually have been enhanced by Somaliland's lack of access to budget support from donors. The suggestion is that when the budget is too heavily dependent on donors it could undermine the connection between citizens and government, i.e., 'no representation without taxation', an inversion of the more commonly heard call for 'no taxation without representation'.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/poverty-matters/2011/aug/26/somaliland-less-money-more-democracy

This is a theme also explored in an interesting collection of papers put together in 2008:

'Taxation and State-Building in Developing Countries' eds. Brautigam, Fjeldstad & Moore (CUP)

[harnett]

Yes - I also saw this article.  Possibly a little rose tinted but the point remains regarding representation.  Thanks for the suggested batch of 2008 papers - are they available on the web? 

I do wonder whether the link is between taxation and the state or simply a state without donor interference.  For many years it has been apparent that often the genuine advances in education and health globally have been achieved outside of the "aid" framework - China, Nicaragua ('79-'85), Cuba, Mozambique (mid '70s) Costa Rica (late '50s and '60s) and others.  Not a pretty conclusion for us development professionals!

[Napodano]

For many years it has been apparent that often the genuine advances in education and health globally have been achieved outside of the "aid" framework - China, Nicaragua ('79-'85), Cuba, Mozambique (mid '70s) Costa Rica (late '50s and '60s) and others.  Not a pretty conclusion for us development professionals!

harnett,

not fully convinced about your statement. MTEF reforms have always focused on the social sectors, mainly education and health.

My take of the Arab uprising is that increased spending in the education sectors has created a class of young, skilled citizens who said 'enough is enough' on a corrupt and inequal society.

[John Short]

Questions - have all MTEF-such like policy reforms (SWAps?) been driven by the donors or have some been initiated from within, and have all the educated Arabs been educated as a result of aid?  Perhaps it will be county specific rather than a world-wide generalisation.

[petagny]

Here's the introduction to the book I mentioned. I think the essential messages are here.

Also attached is a summary of the book, which includes the following overview of one of the key questions addressed:

‘How do taxation and sources of public revenue affect state building and governance in contemporary developing countries? A major axis of debate is whether the taxation  relationship either (a) is intrinsically coercive and therefore inimical to consensual  governance, or (b) as one prominent interpretation of European history suggests, provides an opportunity for the creation of consensual and representative government through 'revenue bargaining' between states and organized citizens. Chapters 2 to 5 focus on this issue. Chapter 2, an analytical review of the debate, provides an interpretation of the relevance of the European historical experience and an explanation of how contextual factors affect outcomes in the contemporary world. Chapters 3 to 5 deal comparatively with cases of coercive taxation (China and East Africa) or more or less  consensual  taxation (Poland  and Russia ). Today and in recent history, governments of many poor countries have depended heavily for revenue on taxes on primary commodity exports. Such revenues have been almost the defining feature of poor countries from a public finance perspective. Chapters 6 and 7 deal with two contrasting cases of the impact of export taxes on state building. In one case - sugar in Mauritius - there was a great deal of bargaining between sugar producers and successive governments, which in turn contributed to effective state building.  In the second case - nitrates in Chile - bargaining between producers and the state took place, but was never institutionalized.’