Taxing the indigenous: a history of barriers to fiscal inclusion in the Bolivian highlands

Following the electoral success of left wing and pro-indigenous President Evo Morales, the indigenous poor in Bolivia find themselves at the centre of a new vision of the state, echoed by a fervent citizenship project to include them as contributing participants in this new Bolivia. The state is working to initiate these hitherto informally employed subjects into an individualized fiscal regime: to make them into “taxpayers”. While the highland indigenous population have supported Morales’ political project, they resist inclusion into the broader state-sponsored project. This is not simply about avoiding financial obligations; their resistance is instead firmly rooted in the historical experience of fiscal exploitation, general suspicion of any state-run scheme as well as a clash of exchange models. I argue that in order to overcome these barriers, the Tax Office has to succeed in separating fiscal expansion from its association with an abstract state concept, and instead link it to palpable everyday life and politics, such as the union structure and Morales’ project of indigenous inclusion.     

清代回疆粮赋制度研究:牛津大学所藏清代库车、沙雅尔署衙档案之探讨

本文利用牛津大学所藏清代回疆档案文献资料和清代其他文献相互印证,对库车和沙雅尔两地的赋税征收制度中若干问题进行了探讨。清代回疆粮赋征收制度具有如下特点:主要土地占有形式"原垦地亩"和"官地"二者田赋的征收是"视岁收数目"而非土地面积,显示出与中原地区自古以来的赋税征收制度的差异。制度规定以籽种的十倍作为实际产量来征收田赋,在此基础上总体上确定某地田赋总额。回疆各城粮赋征收额是一个变化的数据,变化的原因是多方面的。粮赋实际征收中出现明显的负担不均衡的现象。     

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This article considers some of the late-Victorian and Edwardian influences on the popular historian, Sir Arthur Bryant (1899–1985) in the 20th century. It emphasises Bryant's role in strengthening patriotism and English national identity in the unpropitious circumstances of interwar and postwar Britain. The article examines his conservative cast of mind, one he communicated through best-selling histories and prolific journalism. It emphasises his increasing distance from organised Conservatism after the Second World War and the sympathy he attracted in some quarters of the Labour movement at the end of his life, as well as earlier on. However, it concludes that Bryant is a vital link between the late-19th century ‘moment’ of Englishness and its recent revival among Conservative thinkers, publicists and politicians.     

Population density and the accuracy of the land valuations in the 1798 federal direct tax

Abstract

The peculiar operation of the 1798 federal direct tax has led scholars to question whether tax officials reported the land valuations from their districts faithfully. Peter Lindert and Jeffrey Williamson argue that southern tax assessors systemically under reported the value of southern real estate, and they adjust their income estimates to account for the likelihood of corruption. This paper affirms the reliability of the tax returns by demonstrating that population density, rather than corruption or lax enforcement, can explain nearly all of the variation between the assessment districts. Accepting the tax valuations as accurate would lower Lindert and Williamson’s income estimates, imply slower growth rate between 1774 and 1800, and suggest a higher growth rate between 1800 and 1850.