ABSTRACT
The current chapter suggests that statebuilding, especially in war-torn developing countries, is rooted in the way in which emerging elites reinsert themselves in the international economy. As new sectors emerge to meet the opportunities of international insertion, statebuilding is the task of finding accommodations between emerging sectors, established elites, and popular actors, mediated through state institutions. As a lens into this process, taxation provides a critical indicator, as it measures not only an aspect of state capacity but also the degree to which emerging elites are brought into a national political community to contribute to public goods.
