Salience and sovereignty: the politics of taxing big tech in France and the United Kingdom

Thesis

What explains the passing of corporation tax reforms targeting tech multinationals in France and the United Kingdom at multiple levels? Focusing on policy developments in France and the United Kingdom from the second half of the 2010s to the signing of the OECD/G20 international tax agreement in October 2021, this research investigates the passing of five domestic unilateral reforms – France’s so-called ‘Google Tax’ and Digital Services Tax, the UK’s Diverted Profits Tax and Digital Services Tax, and the EU’s Digital Services Tax - and of two rounds of internationally coordinated tax reforms. The coexistence of these varied reform types within a short timeframe presents a puzzling case of public policy, in which governments pursued overlapping strategies to tax multinationals. It raises important questions about the drivers and constraints of tax policymaking in an era of digitalisation and economic globalisation. Drawing on qualitative process-tracing methodology, the research combines extensive elite interviews with documentary evidence and media coverage analysis to trace the causal mechanisms behind policy change. Through detailed case-studies of France, the UK, and OECD-led international negotiations, it shows how political salience created windows of opportunity for reform, while national economic interests shaped the scope and sustainability of policy change. The dissertation proposes a hybrid theoretical framework that integrates agenda-setting theories with interest-based models from comparative political economy. It suggests that political salience – raised and sustained by political entrepreneurs and media coverage – served as the primary catalyst for reform, transforming corporate tax policy from a technocratic matter into a politically urgent issue. It stresses the role of political intermediaries in the development and influence of political salience over public policy. The research challenges conventional explanations centered on partisanship and technocratic leadership, showing that these factors were secondary to the role of political salience in driving reform. It repositions international tax reform as a politically contingent – responsive to democratic accountability and domestic economic priorities even in complex, globally coordinated policy areas. This framework offers broader insights for understanding how states navigate competing pressures in other highly technical and politically salient domains, such as climate taxation, wealth regulation, and digital governance.

Authors: Hautefort, C

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-jbaaokzmd
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: policy reforms; political salience; big tech; taxation
• Subjects: Government policy; Taxation; Public relations and politics