Examining Policy Discourse on Taxation of Multinational Enterprises: An Advocacy Coalition Framework Approach

The Advocacy Coalition Framework posits that, to understand a complex policy process, focus on the subsystem actors who form competing coalitions based on shared beliefs. This paper applies the ACF to theorize policy actors’ core beliefs on how to tax multinational enterprises (MNEs). It especially deconstructs how Africa’s policy core beliefs on the global minimum tax converge or diverge with that of the OECD core 38, the group of 20 and other stakeholders. The study further delves into the intricacies of MNEs, the case of digital platforms and their taxation issues. A discourse network analysis is used to map policy core beliefs on the Global Minimum Tax policy subsystem as published by select regulatory bodies on a supranational level to (i) identify dominant policy actors (ii) formed coalitions and (iii) what kinds of beliefs contribute to coalition formation.