Book Reviews

Isaac W. Martin of University of California, San Diego reviews “Taxing Reforms: The Politics of the Consumption Tax in Japan, the United States, Canada and Australia” by Richard Eccleston,. The EconLit Abstract of the reviewed work begins “Explores the politics of consumption tax reform in the four countries where the political resistance to such policies has been most acute--Australia, Canada, Japan, and the United States. Provides an overview of the contemporary literature on institutional and policy change and identifies a number of processes and mechanisms likely to be associated with comprehensive tax reform. Presents the empirical context for the book’s case studies and describes the rise and proliferation of value-added taxes over the course of the twentieth century. Describes the politics of consumption tax reform in Australia between the early 1970s and 2000. Considers the politics of introducing a national goods and services tax in Canada. Assesses the most notable exception to the trend toward implementing national level value added taxes among advanced industrial nations with an American case study. Identifies a number of occasions on which U.S. policymakers gave serious consideration to the introduction of a national value added tax. Eccleston is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Government at the University of Tasmania. Index.”