The Politics of Tax States in the Canadian Provinces after the Golden Age

Abstract

AbstractThis article evaluates the impact of partisanship, globalization and postindustrialism on provincial revenues since 1980. It is often argued that the first of these no longer has an effect, while the second and third erode fiscal capacity. These arguments are assessed with multilevel models, hitherto little used for macro-level estimations in political science. This approach is particularly suited to testing these influences. The study finds that partisanship is, in fact, strongly associated with provincial revenues. Globalization and postindustrialism have a more muted effect, though alternative estimations support somewhat different conclusions regarding the former. The social preconditions of partisanship's impact, moreover, deserve more attention.