Tax policy and tax protest in 20 rich democracies, 1980-2010.

Why are some policies protested more than others? New data on protest against eight categories of taxation in twenty rich democracies from 1980 to 2010 reveal that economically and socially concentrated taxes are protested most, whereas taxes that confer entitlement to benefits are protested least. Other features of policy design often thought to affect the salience or visibility of costs are unimportant for explaining the frequency of protest. These findings overturn a folk theory that political sociology has inherited from classical political economy; clarify the conditions under which policy threats provoke protest; and shed light on how welfare states persist

Taxation and Citizen Voice in School District Parcel Tax Elections

Local taxation produces consequential resource inequalities among public school districts, but little is known about how policy design affects taxpayers’ willingness to pay for schooling. We show that voters are more likely to approve local school taxes if the policy is written to require citizen–state consultation on how the funds are spent. In a sample of 236 California school district elections, the promise of indirect consultation with a citizen advisory board was associated with a 3.7 percentage-point greater share of voters and a probability of passage that was 31 percentage points greater, whereas direct consultation with voters was associated with a 5.7 percentage-point greater share of voters and a probability of passage that was 32 percentage points greater, relative to a proposed tax increase with no consultation. These results provide evidence that citizens may trade increased taxation for increased voice even within an established democracy

Resetting of ventricular tachycardia: Implications for localizing the area of slow conduction

AbstractAnalysis of local endocardial electrograms recorded during reentrant ventricular tachycardia does not provide direct information as to the participation of the recording site in the tachycardia circuit. To determine if programmed electrical stimulation at the recording site can assist in localizing areas of slow conduction that are participating in the tachycardia circuit, seven patients with sustained monomorphic ventricular tachycardia were studied. The cardiac cycle was scanned with single stimuli delivered during ventricular tachycardia at multiple endocardial sites.In four patients, an endocardial site was identified at which stimuli advanced the tachycardia with marked conduction delay and without alteration of the ventricular activation sequence, as indicated by a lack of change in the configuration of the QRS complex and endocardial electrograms distant from the stimulation site. This finding was seen only during stimulation at sites displaying abnormal electrograms and is consistent with premature depolarization of an area of slow conduction within the tachycardia focus by stimuli delivered at or near that area. Attempted endocardial catheter ablation at or adjacent to these sites in three patients was followed by persistent noninducibility of ventricular tachycardia in one patient, marked modification of the configuration and cycle length of inducible tachycardia in one patient and transient noninducibility of tachycardia in one patient.Programmed electrical stimulation during ventricular tachycardia at sites with abnormal electrograms may provide information about the proximity of the stimulation site to the tachycardia circuit