The End of the Strong State?

On the Evolution of Japanese Tax Policy

Bibliographic Data

ID23247705
AuthorsEisaku Ide, Sven Steinmo (0000-0003-3162-8741, European University Institute)
Year2009
Pages119-137
Publication date2009-07-13
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeCHAPTER
VenueNew Fiscal Sociology (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherCambridge University Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1017/cbo9780511627071.008
OpenAlexW2489132256
ISBN9780511627071
LanguageEN
Citations received10

Japan has long been held up as a model of fiscal discipline and budget restraint. Indeed, Japan has held the remarkable distinction of being the country with the lowest budget deficits and the lowest levels of public spending of any of the rich Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) nations almost the entire postwar period. Even in the 1960s and 1970s, for example, when most other advanced capitalist democracies were building extensive welfare states, Japan continued to practice spending restraint while it was experiencing economic growth rates nearly double the OECD average. Many assumed that it was precisely the strength of state institutions (or the bureaucrats who populated them) that accounted for both the high levels of economic growth and the remarkable budgetary constraint experienced by this country (Borrus et al. 1982; Pempel 1979; Savage 2000; Thurow 1992). Indeed, Japan was sometimes held up as a premier example of a successful democratic “strong state” (Johnson 1982; Samuels 1994; Thurow 1992).

Business · Economics · Political science · State (computer science) · Computer Science · Social Policy and Reform Studies

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