The tobin tax: Reviving a discussion

Raffer, Kunibert

doi:10.1016/s0305-750x(97)10057-2

Cited by 46 publications

(7 citation statements)

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“…Tobin's proposal attracted a lot of discussion and some criticism, not least from those in the financial services industry who would stand to lose were such a tax introduced. Economists were (and continue to be) split on its wisdom (Raffer, 1998). Tobin accepted that his proposal flew in the face of free market principles and the ideal of a highly liquid financial system, but argued that the social cost of current behaviour was too high and that the tax would nudge people to behave in social more productive ways (Sunstein and Thaler, 2008).…”

Section: Using Ict To Protect Democracymentioning

confidence: 99%

The fourth power: ICT and the role of the administrative state in protecting democracy

Bannister

Connolly

2018

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Western liberal capitalist democracy is in trouble. In many democratic countries, for the first time since the second world war, nationalism, populism and the strong leader who can sort out the problems have re-emerged in force. Some democracies seem to be reverting to forms of autocracy which many thought they had left behind. ICT is a contributory factor to this trend. Contrary to the techno-optimism of the 1990s and early 2000s which forecast the emergence of more and stronger democracy underpinned by technological developments, technology increasingly appears as more of a threat to, rather than a support of, democracy. Technology-enabled problems include fake news, hacking of e-mail servers, hate sites, Twitter storms and filter bubbles into which different political groups retreat to reinforce their prejudices. This paper proposes a rethink of how technology can be deployed in defence of democracy and democratic values. We argue that it has long been recognised that the administrative state and its deep bureaucratic structures provide a degree of democratic resilience and that this resilience can be enhanced by appropriate use of ICT. We propose that prioritising ICT interoperability rather than ICT integration in public administration can enhance the separation of powers in the modern state and strengthen the ability of a polity to resist authoritarianism. This is not proposed as a solution to all of the problems facing contemporary democracy, but it can nonetheless contribute towards countering the increasingly negative impact of technology on politics. We argue that there is an urgent need to move beyond what has often been wishful thinking about e-government and edemocracy as transformative tools and consider how technology might be used for conserving and protecting the best of what we have already have.F. Bannister and R. Connolly / ICT and the role of the administrative state in protecting democracy are admirable, but the reality has been disappointing. Instead of cyberspace providing an electronic agora for widespread informed discussion and deliberation, it has evolved, inter alia, into an archipelago of political safe spaces which serve to satisfy confirmation bias and it has allowed many extreme, even vile, forms of political participation and comment, hitherto at the margins of politics, to have much greater impact than their degree of public support warrants. We discuss both of these phenomena, and other problems for democracy caused by ICT, in sections two and three.Secondly, in section four, we argue that a strong, politically neutral, administrative system in which power is widely distributed provides what might be called a 'fourth power' in addition to parliament, the judiciary and the media. Bureaucracies can place barriers in the way of would be authoritarian leaders. A better term for this would be the 'deep state', but unfortunately this term has political overtones of subversion of the state and is so often associated with conspiracy theories (e.g. Grandin, 2017; Jenkins, 2018) that its...

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Section: Using Ict To Protect Democracymentioning

confidence: 99%

The fourth power: ICT and the role of the administrative state in protecting democracy

Bannister

Connolly

2018

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“…There has, for example, been intense opposition to a CTT from within the US Congress, which, in 1996 passed an Act requiring that before the US pay any assessed or voluntary contribution to the UN or its agencies the President must certify that the receiving agency has 'not engaged in any effort to develop, advocate, promote, or publicize any proposal concerning taxation or fees on United States persons in order to raise revenue for the United Nations' (Raffer 1998). Opposition from Congress is an expression of habitual hostility to any proposal that would affect national sovereignty.…”

Section: (D) Power Of Adverse Vested Interests Againstmentioning

confidence: 99%

Political Economy of Additional Development Finance

Clunies–Ross¹,

Langmore²

2008

Development Finance in the Global Economy

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The paper considers the political obstacles and supports for additional development finance and a number of possible devices through which advantage may be taken of the supports and the obstacles circumvented. It emphasizes the need for effective negotiating alliances among developing-country governments that will draw on support from outside their own ranks. It gives particular attention to the 'innovative' methods by which funds might be mobilized by transnational activity for global disposal within a strategy for the progressive reduction of poverty. In order to eliminate one difficulty it outlines a possible arrangement through which funds so raised might be allocated.

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“…This recommendation is derived from a proposal originally put forward in 1972 by the economist James Tobin, for such a financial, or currency, transactions tax (Tobin 1972). His idea was revived in the 1990s (Raffer, 1998, ul Haq, Kaul and Grunberg, 1996, Patomaki, 2001) and, because international interest became intense, the UN set up an international panel, the Zedillo panel, in 2000 supposedly to look into the finance of overseas aid, including the tax. The report was a big disappointment, because the tax was not in fact examined in terms of its history or potential uses and administration.…”

Section: Redistribution and Human Rightsmentioning

confidence: 99%

World povertyNew policies to defeat an old enemy

Townsend¹,

Gordon²

2002

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The tobin tax: Reviving a discussion

Cited by 46 publications

References 1 publication

The fourth power: ICT and the role of the administrative state in protecting democracy

The fourth power: ICT and the role of the administrative state in protecting democracy

Political Economy of Additional Development Finance

World povertyNew policies to defeat an old enemy

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