Neo-liberalism at a Time of Crisis: the Case of Taxation

Abstract

This essay explores how the global financial crisis of [2008][2009] has affected the stability of what Stephen Gill has termed the 'new constitutionalism of disciplinary neo-liberalism', 1 more precisely, in the realm of international tax policy. Rather than providing an in-depth and complete empirical study of the matter, this essay will highlight certain interesting developments and touch upon a series of possibly relevant questions that could form the basis for a future research agenda. In the first section, we will examine the remarkable strength and resilience of the new constitutionalism as the institutional component of neo-liberal hegemony. Then we will proceed to an exploration of the impact of the crisis on this hegemony, also paying attention to deepening geopolitical multipolarity as an additional variable. The final, more empirical section will investigate the case of international taxation in this context, and demonstrate that new constitutionalism remains a crucial supporting pillar of neo-liberal globalisation.

Multiple streams, leaked opportunities, and entrepreneurship in the EU agenda against tax avoidance

“…Taxation is no exception. The financial crisis has been considered a focusing event that led tax havens and related taxation issues to be perceived as problems for two reasons (Lesage & Vermeiren, ). Firstly, tax havens were a crucial element of the so‐called shadow banking system that enabled the risky and complex financial operations responsible for the crisis.…”

After the Crisis and Beyond the New Constitutionalism? The Case of the Free Movement of Capital

“…To the contrary, neoliberalism is a multidimensional process pursued via, amongst others, political, economic, legal, ideological and cultural instruments. However, a valuable extension to the conceptualization of new constitutionalism by Stephen Gill has been made by Adam Harmes (2006) (see also Lesage & Vermeiren, 2011). According to him, the legal anchoring of neoliberalism should be seen in relation to neoliberalism's economic anchoring.…”

Identity of Asian Multinational Corporations: influence of tax havens

“…To this end, we highlight the trend of certain economic policy-making that have led to a small proportion of earners amassing substantial wealth through legitimised political and legal mandates. This is typical of neo-liberalism agendas of the state in promoting deregulation, privatisation and a strong pro-market ethos at a national and international level, often precluding such acts from democratic decision-making (Lesage and Vermeiren 2011) or what Gill (2008) notes as the "new constitutionalism of disciplinary neo-liberalism". This trend is not a new phenomenon and has been in existence, since early 1600s when the erstwhile East India Company was established to undertake trade in the East Indies (Pereira and Malik 2015;Malik 2018a).…”