Journal Article

Oil, Nontax Revenue, and the Redistributional Foundations of Regime Stability

Morrison, Kevin M.

2009

Overview

Nontax revenues make up a substantial amount of government revenue around the world, though scholars usually focus on individual sources of such revenue (for example, foreign aid and state-owned oil companies). Using a theory of regime change that builds on recent models of the redistributional foundations of dictatorships and democracies, I generate hypotheses regarding all nontax revenue and regime stability. I argue that an increase in nontax revenue should be associated with less taxation of elites in democracies, more social spending in dictatorships, and more stability for both regime types. I find support for all three of these hypotheses in a cross-sectional time-series analysis, covering all countries and years for which the necessary data are available. Significantly, I show that the particular source of nontax revenue does not make a difference: they all act similarly with regard to regime stability and the causal mechanisms.

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Subject: Companies / Democracy / Democratization / Dictators / Dictatorship / Economic models / Elites / Expenditures / Foreign aid / Government / Government revenue / Government spending / Hypotheses / Income / Income redistribution / Income taxes / Intellectuals / Low income groups / Oil companies / Petroleum / Political economy / Political regimes / Political Science Theories / Political stability / Political Systems / Politics / Polities / Public revenue / Regime transition / Revenue / Revenue Acts / Scholars / Stability / Tax revenues / Taxation / Theory