POLS 1130 / Walker

Introduction to Comparative Politics 

Written Assignment 3: Comparative Tax Policy

This assignment asks you to read an article carefully and summarize the argument in several ways.  Here is the easy three-step plan:
  1. Read the Assigned Reading. The article in question is On-line Reading No. 2: Steinmo, Sven. 1989. "Political Institutions and Tax Policy in the United States, Sweden, and Britain," World Politics 41(4): 500-535.  It is a dense article, so read it carefully.

    2.  
  2. Fill Out the Table. Once you have read the article, you can fill out the table I have provided on the web. The table asks you to summarize Steinmo's argument by: (1) describing a polity's tax policy and (2) identifying the connections between the policy and the political institutions that were used to shape it. In other words, the task is to identify how policy is nested within institutions.

    3.  
  3. Answer the following questions. Please type your responses an attach them to your table.

    4.  
    1. In which of the three polities do you think it would be easiest to introduce a major reform of the tax system?  In which of the three would it be the most difficult?  Why?

      2.  
    2. Although Steinmo does not explicitly include political culture in his analysis, in what ways can you see political culture working directly or indirectly on public policy in these three polities?

Notes:

Please be sure your name is on every page.

Late essays will be down graded a third of a grade (for example from a B+ to a B) for each 24-hour period they are tardy.

This assignment is worth 50 points.