This is an excerpt from a paper describing how government finances (taxes and expenses) can be made more understandable, allowing the average voter to be more informed when deciding between various political views

"Government finances - taxes and expenditures - can be made more understandable, allowing citizens to exercise more effective democratic control by dividing all expenses into several reasonably homogeneous categories; financing these expenses with taxes that are most closely identified with those activities so that those paying the taxes are similar to those benefiting from the expenses; and then simplifying the taxes and expenses one category at a time, allowing more informed participation by those most affected.

Currently there is little relation between any given spending proposal and the various taxes. Most people find little reason to spend time and money scrutinizing any spending proposal that does not directly affect them. Instead each group expends their effort trying to keep their own taxes lower without any concern as to how this would affect expenditures. With this proposal, whenever a specific expenditure change is proposed, a specific related tax would also need to change. Those concerned by the tax change and those interested in the expenditure change would then have an incentive to provide comments about the merits of the proposed change.

If all government expenditures could be similarly related to specific taxes paid by the same groups receiving the benefits, there would be a greater chance that decisions about taxes and expenses reflected a more reasoned dialog and consensus. This might lead to more spending and taxes in some areas and less spending and taxes in others.  In the case of business subsidies, it may lead to less expenditure and taxes.

The primary effect of separating the large federal budget into smaller self-contained areas would be that affected parties could understand and debate the issues. Currently it is almost impossible to really understand all the tradeoffs in any change to taxes or expenses."

Download file

Top

Democracy in Eastern Europe

The Raynault Foundation was very involved in promoting democracy as explained in this web site page from 1995:

Sponsoring seminars on democratic elections in Eastern Europe in 1993 involving IFES, the Democracy After Communism Foundation, and the Hungarian Election Foundation.

Producing a series of papers in 1991 on ways the states of the former Soviet Union could restructure that would minimize ethnic conflict while encouraging economic development.

Here's a summary of the early work done in Budapest:

BUDAPEST HOSTS THE ASSOCIATION OF CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPEAN ELECTION OFFICIALS

"On April 22-24, 1993, election administrators from ten countries gathered in Budapest, Hungary for the third meeting of the Association of Central and Eastern European Election Officials (ACEEEO). The meeting was made possible through the generous support of Mr. Paul Raynault and the Raynault Foundation.
The meeting was organized by IFES, the Democracy After Communism Foundation in Budapest, and the Hungarian Election Foundation. The theme of the two-day session was electoral reform in Central and Eastern Europe. Participants exchanged information on electoral laws, procedures, civic education, permanent electoral bodies, voter registration, and election observation. Other participants included Dr. Michael Pinto-Duschinsky of the Westminster Foundation for Democracy (United Kingdom), Charles Lasham of the Association of Electoral Administrators (United Kingdom), Dr. Bernard Owen of the Center for Comparative Study of Elections in Paris, and Greg Tardi of Elections Canada.

Meeting participants approved a work plan defining the kinds of activities the Association will undertake such as annual meetings, specialized seminars, election observation missions, and support for the Association's Documentation Center. The Documentation Center was established last year in Budapest and is headed by Dr. Marta Dezso. The Center has received generous support from the National Election Office of Hungary.

The Association accepted the invitation from Ukraine to host next year's annual association meeting, which will be held in Kiev in Spring 1994.  Participating countries at the Budapest meeting were Albania, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, and Ukraine."

Top