Death without Taxes Democracy, State Capacity, and Aid Dependence in the Fourth World

Abstract

Abstract The title of this volume assumes tensions between ‘democracy’ and ‘development’. What are they? Which state institutions and the gov¬ ernment practices are development-friendly but democracy-averse? There is a long list of familiar claimants to a place on this list. For example: the need for governments to take some key, difficult economic policy decisions both secretly and independently of the influence of economic pressure groups; the requirement that trade unions be controlled and that environmental standards be held low for fear of discouraging (foreign) investment; incentives for government to enter into corporatist-type arrangements, with business, labour, and other economic interests, that privilege these interests and the organizations that represent them in relation to the rest of the population; the temp¬tation to give priority to ‘continuity’, ‘predictability’, and ‘government credibility’ over the uncertainty inherent in democratic elections; and the pressure for states in fiscal trouble to enter into (secret) economic policy agreements with (foreign) creditors at the expense of transparency or democratic accountability.

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