It is a very new book, a July 2020 affair. The crises unsettling capitalist globalisation makes this book more than timely. If at the best of times, domestic resource mobilisation was a thorny one, it is even worse now. On page seven, (7) of the introductory chapter written by Katja Hujo, the book editor and Dr. Yusuf Bangura, ex-UNRISD Research Director, is a paragraph that can be said to have most powerfully located why this is so and is thus worth quoting:
Katja Hujo, the book editor
Against this backdrop, developing countries cannot rely only on donor transfers if they are keen to meet their global targets and respond to the needs of their citizens. They will have to increase efforts in mobilizing
domestic resources. Indeed, the importance of DRM is becoming evident to both recipient and donor governments. From the perspective of recipient governments, even if ODA improves substantially, it often comes with conditions, such as buying donor goods and services, giving donors considerable space in the policy process, as well as delays and uncertainties in aid disbursement. Many of these countries, especially those whose governments have embraced a developmental approach to poverty reduction, have introduced measures to increase domestic revenues”
The merit of the book can, therefore, be located in how it takes up the problem of domestic revenue mobilisation and its politics as it obtains in several countries in the Global South. There is no better outlay than the arrangement of this in the book flyer:
Table of contents
- The Politics of Domestic Resource Mobilization for Social Development: An Introduction (Pages 1-37), Katja Hujo and Yusuf Bangura
Part I: Domestic Resource Mobilization Through the Lens of Taxation, Aid and Mineral Rent
- Fiscal Capacity and Aid Allocation: Domestic Resource Mobilization and Foreign Aid in Developing Countries, (Pages 41-74), Aniket Bhushan and Yiagadeensen Samy
- Domestic Resource Mobilization for Social Transfers in Sub-Saharan Africa: Can Foreign Aid Act as a Catalyst? (Pages 75-108), Cherrier, Cecile
- How Can Governments of Low-Income Countries Collect More Tax Revenue? (Pages 109-138), Mick Moore and Wilson Prichard
- Colonial Legacies and Social Welfare Regimes in Africa: An Empirical Exercise (Pages 139-172), Mkandawire, Thandika
- Democratic Deepening and State Capacity: Taxation in Brazil and India (Pages 173-206), Tailor, Aaron
- Power and Politics: Taxation, Social and Labor Market Policies in Argentina and Chile, 1990-2010 (Pages 207-236), Enrique Delamonica, Jamee K. Moudud and Esteben Pérez Caldentey
- Sharing the Wealth: The Politics of Subnational Distribution of Natural Resource Revenues (Pages 237-266), Javier Arellano-Yanguas and Andrés Mejia-Acosta
Part II: The Politics of Domestic Resource Mobilization: Case Studies
- Domestic Resource Mobilization for Social Development in Bolivia (1985-2014): Protests, Hydrocarbons and a New State Project (Pages 269-303), Paz Arauco, Verónica
- The Political Economy of Domestic Resource Mobilization in Nicaragua: Changing State-Citizen Relations and Social Development (Pages 305-338), Carrión, Gloria
- The Political Economy of Resource Mobilization for Social Development in Uganda (Pages 339-370), Anne Mette Kjær and Marianne S. Ulriksen
- The Politics of Resource Bargaining, Social Relations and Institutional Development in Zimbabwe Since Independence (Pages 371-403), Saunders, Richard
- The Politics of Domestic Resource Mobilization for Social Development: Conclusions (Pages 405-422), Hujo, Katja
In the end, the editors and UNRISD presents its audience with a hefty book of 443 pages, covering the subject matter in what most readers would agree to be the most representative and also most sensational cases: Nicaragua, Bolivia, Zimbabwe, Argentina, Chile, Brazil and India. Certainly, the inclusion of South Africa, Ethiopia and Nigeria would have enriched the text. Unfortunately, that is not the case beyond the broad chapters on Sub-Africa. Perhaps, the next edition might consider something in that direction.
Meanwhile, the reviews are not holding back in approving ratings:
“This book will be a cornerstone resource in global efforts to realize the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and Addis Ababa Action Agenda. Its rich country case studies and examples elucidate the social, political and economic challenges of domestic resource mobilization. The state-of-the-art analysis will provide policymakers and practitioners with new tools to design and implement fiscal policies that leave no one behind.”
—Navid Hanif, Director, Financing for Sustainable Development Office, UNDESA
“This important book explores ways in which the mobilization of additional domestic resources in developing countries can reduce aid dependence, help achieve the SDG targets, and generate closer democratic contacts between state actors and the electorate.” —Giovanni Andrea Cornia, University of Florence
“This is a major contribution to our understanding of the dynamics of domestic resource mobilization for financing social development objectives. Mobilizing sufficient domestic resources is important for policy sovereignty and achieving sustainable social development.” —Jimi Adesina, South African Research Chair in Social Policy, University of South Africa, South Africa
“A must-read for scholars and policymakers interested in understanding the political economy of domestic resource mobilization and (re)distribution. The book delivers a savvy dialogue with the literature and a rich empirical analysis of African and Latin American countries. Policy lessons are grounded in country-specific interplay between multilevel politics and legacies.” —Juliana Franzoni Martinez, University of Costa Rica
The nightmare it must be mobilising domestic resources in a political economy like this
This makes the point that ‘the volume is unique in putting a spotlight on the political drivers of domestic resource mobilization in a rapidly changing global environment and in different country contexts in Latin America, Asia and sub-Saharan Africa’ to be totally correct. It is also correct to anticipate that practitioners, activists and policy makers and the broad academic audience in the fields of economics, development studies and social policy will appeal the text appealing.
The previewers have interpreted the book, the point, however, is for each potential reader to read the book but critically and apply it in his or her own little domain. The overarching question is whether domestic resources exist to be mobilised in peripheral social formations (theoretically, there are not supposed to be centres and peripheries under globalisation, globalisation being a decentering process) where capital, (in the capitalist sense) is dormant. And where the state has been captured by ‘external’ interests to do things that are the anti-thesis of social development. And, finally, where taxable citizens do not exist as only workers, peasants and the urban poor can be captured while those who should pay tax are, for most of the time, on tax holidays or savouring waivers or just too powerful to be made to pay. Just a recast of the issue areas!
