Survey findings from three American communities on citizens' willingness to support public programs through local property tax increases are examined to shed further light on the contemporary "taxpayers' revolt." The analysis discovers that distinctly different dynamics characterize the politics of local property tax proposals. Discrete proposals generate different patterns of community cleavage, which may or may not preclude passage; however, a structural bias in favor of tax revolters is discovered in all three of the study sites.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations (1977) Changing Public Attitudes on Government and Taxes . Washington, DC: Author.
2.
Behrens, J.O. (1973) "The public and the publicans talk taxes." National Tax J.26 (June): 221-232.
3.
Citrin, J. (1979) "Do people want something for nothing: public opinion on taxes and government spending." National Tax J.32 (June): 113-129.
4.
Clark, T.N. (1974) "Can you cut a budget pie?" Policy and Politics3 (December): 3-31.
5.
--- ( 1968) "Community structure, decision-making, budget expenditures, and urban renewal in 51 American communities." Amer. Soc. Rev.33 (August): 576-593.
Coleman, J.S. (1957) Community Conflict. New York : Macmillan.
8.
Downs, A. (1957) An Economic Theory of Democracy. New York: Harper & Row.
9.
Farquharson, R. (1969) Theory of Voting. New Haven : Yale Univ. Press.
10.
Fowler, F.J., Jr. (1974) Citizen Attitudes Toward Local Government, Services and Taxes. Cambridge, MA: Ballinger .
11.
Gamson, W.A. (1968) Power and Discontent. Homewood, IL: Irwin.
12.
Hoffman, W. (1976) "The democratic response of urban governments: an empirical test with simple spatial models." Policy and Politics4 (June): 51-74.
13.
Laumann, E.O. and F.U. Pappi (1976) Networks of Collective Action: A Perspective on Community Influence Systems. New York: Academic.
14.
Layfield, F. (1978) "The reform of taxation." Center Magazine II (January/February): 61-69.
15.
Lingoes, J.C. (1973) The Guttman-Lingoes Nonmetric Program Series. Ann Arbor, MI: Mathesis.
16.
Miller, N.R. (1977) "Graph-theoretical approaches to the theory of voting." Amer. J. of Pol. Sci.21 ((November): 769-803.
17.
Mueller, E. (1963) "Public attitudes toward fiscal programs." Q. J. of Econ.77 (May): 210-235.
18.
Neufeld, J. (1977) "Taxrate referenda and the property taxpayers' revolt." National Tax J.30 (December): 441-456.
19.
Nie, N.S., S. Verba, and J. Petrocik (1976) The Changing American Voter. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press.
20.
Olson, M., Jr. (1965) The Logic of Collective Action. New York: Schocken.
21.
Walton, J. (1970) "A systematic survey of community power research ," pp. 443-464 in M. Aiken and P. Mott (eds.) The Structure of Community Power. New York: Random House.
22.
Wilson, J.Q. and. E.C. Banfield (1964) "Public-regardingness as a value premise in voting behavior." Amer. Pol. Sci. Rev.58 (December): 876-887.