Abstract
This article offers an administrative interpretation of how tax structure develops cumulatively. On the basis of cases of British tax structure development between 1939 and 1982, it explores the extent to which long-term fiscal change can be understood as the slow erosion of basic design features embedded in official structures of rules and bureaucracy, with alternative design principles being espoused after a long process of attrition in terms of subsidiary design features. It further explores the extent to which administrative considerations may shape the style in which new fiscal designs are introduced (by an assumed preference for step-by-step development or imitation as against all-in-one prototyping) and may set selection criteria for the rejection or reinforcement of tax designs in the long run.
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I am grateful to Paul Sabatier, Alan Peacock, Elinor Ostrom, Richard Rose, the editor and two anonymous referees of Policy Sciences for their observations on earlier drafts of this article. It was originally conceived in the context of a Research Group on “Guidance, Control and Performance Appraisal in the Public Sector” at the ZIF Centre, University of Bielefeld, Federal Republic of Germany, in 1981–2, and revised during time spent as Visiting Fellow at the Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore.
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Hood, C.C. British tax structure development as administrative adaptation. Policy Sci 18, 3–31 (1985). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00149749
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00149749