Public participation in tax policy reform processes: a case study of Uganda’s civil society organizations

Abstract

Since the advent of modern states in both Europe and the global southern nations, taxation was viewed as the leading criteria in evaluating the quality and efficacy of governments. In Europe especially during the religious wars around 16th, 17th, and early 18th centuries, and through all other wars of conquest and national building, taxation was used to fund these wars. The governments relied on tax collection as a prime source of capital that was necessary to win these wars failure of which they would risk being overrun and conquered by other nations. To sufficiently obtain these taxes and succeed on battlefields, leaders appealed to the business community about the centrality of paying taxes which was considered to be vital in ensuring their safety. In instances where peaceful modes of tax mobilization would fail, violent and forceful means would be applied. States rely on the monopoly of violence as the basic tool for their survival and the most effective method through which their objectives can be realized. Be it as it may, persuasion has deeper tenets of acceptability and ownership and as such, a tax policy arrived at by persuasion and moral appeals is easy to implement hence the attainment of tax compliance; modern states have had to resort to moral appeals and persuasion to effectively realize their tax objectives. It is this process that has given birth to the idea of public participation in taxation policy development where various stakeholders vigorously participate in determining the nature of tax policies and their implementation mechanisms. Using a case study of three most influential civil society organizations in Uganda, this study investigates the role played by civil society organizations in influencing tax policy reforms with a key objective of devising new cases for reform.