Tax Revolt: Something for Nothing in California

by David O. Sears, Jack Citrin

The results of an opinion poll depict the attitudes of the public toward taxation and how these influenced their decisions to vote for measures to limit taxes and government spending in California

304 pages, Hardcover

First published June 25, 1982

Reviews

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

An excellent book for political science nerds. However, there is literally no reason in the universe anyone who doesn't need or want to break down endless amounts of graphs, charts, and polling data should ever pick up this book. Steer clear, normal sophisticated reader.

[Marc Sabatier · Rating 3 out of 5]

A classic, and interesting to reflect on how far political behavior has come by the visual display of data. So much of the text is dedicated to explain the results in words, instead of simply summarizing it visually (of course there are regression tables and some very nice causal funnels to show the relations).

More substantially, the key point that voters want "something for nothing" - that is, that they display general attitudes to taxation and the public sector that are consistent (lower taxes and less gov.), then when people go into specifics (military, schools etc), they either want to preserve or increase current spending - seems a bit unuanced to me. An alternative view is that an increase in details is some sort of persuasive argument, so when citizens are presented to a details on a single area, they will always be pro. But I'm wondering whether citizens would be inconsistent if info on public spending was paired with info on private spending, i.e. how they could use the money themselves. Perhaps then you would see citizens making rational trade-offs.