This book comprehensively analyzes two crucial factors that impede economic development and democratization in Latin America: low tax collection and high crime rates. It illuminates how these policy issues profoundly shape state capacity in the region. Moreover, it provides powerful insights into the conditions under which governments can effectively increase tax revenue from affluent individuals, thereby bolstering state capabilities and addressing pressing concerns such as public safety or inequality.

According to Flores-Macías, the notion that opportunities for increasing taxes on the rich only emerge during critical junctures is only partially accurate. Such opportunities are often driven by “supply and demand” mechanisms, particularly strong linkages between business and government. Flores-Macías also suggests that governments on the right or center-right of the political spectrum are better positioned to leverage such mechanisms to increase taxes on the rich and enhance state capacity. He further argues that recent concerns about public safety in the region have triggered these mechanisms, as it has become a real threat to business elites, making them more inclined to support government measures to enhance their ability to combat organized crime and drug traffickers.

In particular, his theory of elite taxation argues t