Abstract
As a means of financing British local government, the attempt to replace the residential property tax with a community charge, or poll tax, has proved disastrous. Yet underlying the reform was the intellectually appealing notion of seeking to enhance accountability in local government affairs. This paper traces the origins of the poll tax, describes how it was intended to operate, documents the implementation difficulties, and analyzes the reasons for its failure. It concludes that the notion of accountability underlying the poll tax is flawed, and that mistakes were made in implementation. Many of the lessons learned are of general applicability.