The article analyses the characteristics of the decision-making process of tax reforms. At the empirical level, it focuses on the patterns of political interaction among political actors with specific reference to recent reforms in Brazil. The reform arena is described as exhibiting great technical complexity and medium political salience, and involving basically bureaucratic elites and state governors. The author concludes that the recent deadlock in tax reform can be explained by the consociational elements of the Brazilian political system, by the "political geometry of reform losses", and by collective action problems encountered by state governors. It is further argued that governors face a "prisoner's dilemma" type of incentive structure.
Tax Reform; Constitutional reform; Federalism; State and government; Decision-making process
