taxes are generally disliked and councillors who want to be re-elected disassociate
themselves from increased taxation. In some cases councillors are also reluctant to
raise local taxes and charges because they are major local landowners or business
people who seek to minimise their personal tax burden. Tax collectors interviewed
stated that councillors obstructed tax collection and talked ‘cheap politics’. This
apparent conflict between collectors and politicians is rooted partly in divergent
objectives with respect to tax design, and partly in the lack of trust between
administrators and politicians at the local level. Based on data from 14 district
councils, Jacobsen (1999) finds that there is a ‘trust deficit’ in the politicaladministrative
relations at the local level in Tanzania