Word: taxing
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...measure of academic performance, ranked near the bottom. Within a year of his election, Clinton rammed through a package of reforms that lengthened the school day and required the state's 24,000 teachers to take a controversial competency exam. To pay for the improvements, lawmakers raised the sales tax from 3 cents on the dollar to 4 cents...
...voter disillusionment, the J.S.P. mounted a stunningly effective campaign. Its trump card was Doi, a charismatic politician whose forthright statements and energy offered a refreshing change from the dour-faced, dark- suited politicians fielded by the L.D.P. Campaigning vigorously, Doi and her opposition colleagues promised to rescind the consumption tax and oppose further liberalization of farm imports. "The people are aware of how politics affects their daily life," Doi said during a campaign tour. "It's the politicians who are behind the times...
...J.S.P.'s first major test will be to produce, as promised, an alternative plan to the unpopular consumption tax. Last week the Socialists had little problem persuading the other opposition parties to introduce a bill in the upper house to kill the tax. But the parties were unable to agree on an alternative source of revenue for the government, which needs the money for funding welfare programs, especially the soaring costs of providing care for Japan's aging population...
...outcome of the tax debate will be of keen interest to the newest force in Japanese politics: women. As traditional keepers of the household ledgers, women felt the pinch of the consumption tax most acutely. In the recent election, that issue galvanized them not only to throw their votes to the Socialists but also to enter the political arena in record numbers. Female candidates increased their numbers in the upper house from 23 to 33; they now account for 13% of the chamber's seats. Half of those elected were Socialists like Doi. The J.S.P. leader, however, downplayed her role...
Hochschild thinks "pro-family" legislation is needed, not to promote school prayers and cut off birth-control funds, as in the cant of the Reagan years, but to equalize women's wages and provide family leave for both sexes. Tax breaks would go to firms that allow job sharing and flextime, and to developers who build affordable housing with communal meal-preparation facilities. (A problem she does not mention is that many employers do encourage part-time work, often as a way to avoid paying for medical insurance and other benefits.) Using the phrase of another sociologist, the author calls...