scholarly journals On the Role of the Property Tax in Financing Local Expenditure: The Case of Italy

Author(s):  
Ernesto Longobardi
2016 ◽  
pp. 1913-1933
Author(s):  
Shefali Virkar

Much has been written about e-government within a growing stream of literature on ICT for development, generating countervailing perspectives where optimistic, technocratic approaches are countered by far more sceptical standpoints on technological innovation. This body of work is, however, not without its limitations: a large proportion is anecdotal in its style and overly deterministic in its logic, with far less being empirical, and there is a tendency for models offered up by scholarly research to neglect the actual attitudes, choices, and behaviour of the wide array of actors involved in the implementation and use of new technology in real organisations. Drawing on the theoretical perspectives of the Ecology of Games framework and the Design-Actuality Gap model, this chapter focuses on the conception and implementation of an electronic property tax collection system in Bangalore (India) between 1998 and 2008. The work contributes to not just an understanding of the role of ICTs in public administrative reform, but also towards an emerging body of research that is critical of managerial rationalism for an organization as a whole, and which is sensitive to an ecology of actors, choices, and motivations within the organisation.


2013 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 98-115 ◽  
Author(s):  
S.E. Gialis ◽  
A. Herod

This paper studies workers’ agency in the context of government austerity measures in contemporary, crisis-hit Greece. It focuses upon the spatial aspects of two cases of worker mobilisation. The first of these involves powerworkers who supported widespread popular protests against a new property tax designed to raise government revenues. Importantly, the government had sought to collect this tax by adding it to people's electricity bills, a novel method which generated massive opposition. The second concerns strike activity engaged in by steelworkers employed at the Greek Steelworks SA in Aspropyrgos, in the capital region of Attica. These workers were responding to the company's taking advantage of new laws designed to increase flexibility in labour markets by allowing employers to fire more people than they otherwise would have been allowed to do. The paper analyses the different tactics employed in both of these quite different efforts to challenge Greek austerity measures. In analysing these different tactics we explore the role of in-place and trans-local networks of solidarity in response to government policy. A deeper understanding of such factors, we would suggest, may contribute to strengthening the prospects of workers’ struggle in places and spaces where painful capital devaluation diminishes workers’ rights and dismantles social and employment protections.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Iuliia Shybalkina

There is a substantial body of literature regarding the effects of administrative burdens on the take-up of safety-net programs and the role of organized groups in this process. I investigate similar issues in the context of property tax assessment appeals. Disadvantaged groups spend well over the recommended 30% of their income on housing costs that include property tax, and, on top of that, assessors often overestimate lower-value properties. Appeals may provide some relief, but the process can be burdensome. Certain localities give condominium associations the right to file one joint appeal on behalf of all unit owners. I hypothesize that this rule reduces burdens for condominium units and causes them to appeal more frequently than houses, resulting in a distributive effect that depends on the local context. I present supporting evidence from two case studies in two locations: New York City, which allows joint appeals, and Allegheny County, Pennsylvania (Pittsburgh and surroundings), which does not. Thus, while administrative burdens can span diverse contexts, engaging a third party to assist potential beneficiaries consistently increases the take-up.


2015 ◽  
Vol 68 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-92 ◽  
Author(s):  
William M. Doerner ◽  
Keith R. Ihlanfeldt

Author(s):  
Shefali Virkar

The purpose of this chapter is to examine the role of government in encouraging fiscal compliance from the theoretical perspective of the ‘Ecology of Games'. Conceptual representations of human behaviour in formal complex institutions, located within Behavioural Economics Political Game Theory, presuppose it is possible for government agencies to strategically influence the behavioural preferences and consumption patterns of individual actors and groups in society. This study presents an empirical case concerned with the implementation and use of an electronic property tax collection system in Bangalore, India developed between 1998 and 2008.


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