Die Entwicklung des „Steuerstaates“: Ursprung, Aufstieg und Ende eines finanzwirtschaftlichen Fortschrittsparadigmas

2021 ◽  
Vol 62 (2) ◽  
pp. 505-552
Author(s):  
Alexander Leipold ◽  
Sebastian Huhnholz

Abstract For decades, the Schumpeterian tax state was considered the central paradigm of Fiscal Sociology. However, it increasingly fails to meet many of the conceptual challenges of contemporary public finance. To demonstrate this, the paper undertakes a double re-contextualization of the discourse on public finance. Its development is traced back to evolutionary thinking, which Joseph Schumpeter updated around 1918. However, and following the rise of democratic capitalism after 1945, thinking about the tax state became intertwined with economic control. Its socio-political specifics were marginalized. Since the Great Recession of 2008/2009 and widening fiscal crises in advanced capitalist economies, this discursive narrowing has again become the subject of political and economic controversies.

2017 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 185-209 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yunji Kim

Public finance theories argue local governments should primarily use broad-based and stable property taxes. However, the housing bust after the Great Recession challenges this argument, and historical trends show cities have heavily relied on charges since the late 1970s. Using 2012 Census of Governments data for 2,396 cities, this article explores which cities rely more on charges and the links between property tax dependence and city stress. Regression results show property tax dependence is linked to capacity, while charges dependence is linked to stress. Charges can be a useful revenue tool for cities under stress, but they may be regressive and their use may be limited to urban places with services that can be charged for and cities with growth pressures and less stringent tax and expenditure limitations. Absent equalization efforts from higher-level governments, barriers to using charges, which cities have little control over, may increase inequality among cities.


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