The Role of Income Taxation in Natural Resources Management
It is widely accepted that accelerated depreciation concessions, such as sections 75B and 750, are a poor means for government to address environmental objectives. This position is further supported by recent information highlighting the limited behavioural effect of this form of intervention. The continued existence of poorly targeted subsidy measures, in the face of mounting evidence of their ineffectual nature, suggests they are an important source of political benefits. It is further proposed that as assistance to agriculture declines, the political value of 'generic' policies providing economic rents to industry, such as taxation concessions, will increase and potentially impede the development of agricultural-environmental policy. The further point made is that significant environmental gains will be associated with a greater degree of policy complementarity, not only among elements of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936, but among elements of rural policy generally.
Improving the Efficiency of Taxation of Livestock in Australia
In this paper, the neutrality of the income tax provisions for livestock are examined and compared with policies in selected other countries. It is argued that the current system provides significant concessions by deferring the recognition of income. The deferral of recognition of income distorts investment decisions by providing an incentive to invest in livestock which is not available for similar investments. A more efficient system, based in part on the New Zealand National Standard Cost Scheme is suggested, as are possible transition measures.
Turkish Political Culture and Civil Society : an Unsettling Coupling?
This paper attempts to analyze Turkish politics in the post-1980 period with a special reference to the relationship among the state elites, political elites and societal actors and its impact on the constitution of civil society in Turkey. After the 1980 military intervention, the political and economic realms of Turkey witnessed a relative degree of liberalization through Uzal's neo-liberal policies. The January 24 economic decisions paved the way for economic liberalization as well as letting new economic and societal actors emerge. These new economic actors were different from the prevailing economic actors which used to enjoy having a considerable amount of opportunity spaces in the economic sphere. Together with the Uzal governments, Islamic segments started to become powerful in both political and economic realms. This paper analyses the chief traits of Turkish politics and economics and their impact upon civil society aftermath the 1980 coup in general, and the relationship and/or interaction among the state elites, political elites and societal actors in particular. The engagements of newly-emerging societal and economic actors into Turkish political scene and the challenge of these actors against the so-called 'Kemalist-Republican' elites are also illustrated in the paper. Moreover, state-Islam interaction, politics-Islam interaction as well as Kemalism-newly-emerging societal and economic actors interaction will be studied with a special emphasis to the post-1980 period. The major argument of the paper is that, in Turkey, both civil society issues and political issues reveal outcomes which are primarily shaped by the nature of the relationship between state elites and political elites in general and by Turkish political culture in particular.