Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures
- List of Tables
- Preface
- POLITICS AND TRADE COOPERATION IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY
- PART ONE COOPERATION AND VARIATION
- PART TWO DOMESTIC POLITICS AND TRADE POLICY
- 2 Conceptualizing and Measuring Trade Policy
- 3 A Political-Support Theory of Trade Policy
- 4 State Capacity, Fiscal Concerns, and the Tariff
- 5 Political Institutions and Tariffs
- PART THREE POLITICAL SUPPORT AND TRADE COOPERATION
- PART FOUR NORMS AND COOPERATION
- PART FIVE CONCLUSIONS
- References
- Index
5 - Political Institutions and Tariffs
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 December 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures
- List of Tables
- Preface
- POLITICS AND TRADE COOPERATION IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY
- PART ONE COOPERATION AND VARIATION
- PART TWO DOMESTIC POLITICS AND TRADE POLICY
- 2 Conceptualizing and Measuring Trade Policy
- 3 A Political-Support Theory of Trade Policy
- 4 State Capacity, Fiscal Concerns, and the Tariff
- 5 Political Institutions and Tariffs
- PART THREE POLITICAL SUPPORT AND TRADE COOPERATION
- PART FOUR NORMS AND COOPERATION
- PART FIVE CONCLUSIONS
- References
- Index
Summary
“Above all, we should not fail to recognize that the widening and strengthening of constitutionalism everywhere on the Continent in the second half of the century had the unavoidable effect of placing powerful pressure on the governments' commercial policy, pressure that was unconcerned with the international division of labor and markets and that signified national egoism in international affairs.”
– Johann von Bazant (1894: 14–15)Trade policymaking touches on many different aspects of politics. Chapter 3's theory of political support emphasized the distributional side of policy – protection benefits some and harms others. Politicians balance these interests when setting the tariff.
Chapter 4 examined an administrative side of politics, the problem of revenue collection. I argued that exogenous revenue constraints had modest effects on tariff-making in the population of countries. More important were endogenous, politically chosen revenue needs that logically preceded the political choice to rely on tariffs instead of other revenue sources. So defined, these revenue needs may be seen in many countries, and even more often in the rhetoric of politicians. They reflect distributional concerns connected to the theory of political support.
This chapter turns to a third aspect of domestic politics, the question of political institutions. Politicians seek political support in a wide range of institutional contexts. Although this book focuses primarily on politicians' willingness to supply protection, some changes to the demand side will affect these calculations. Changes in electoral institutions, for example, will affect the relative strength of the various groups in a country.
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- Politics and Trade Cooperation in the Nineteenth CenturyThe 'Agreeable Customs' of 1815–1914, pp. 132 - 154Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2007