Comments on: Taxation and the nature of the state http://davecole.org/blog/2008/03/14/taxation-and-the-nature-of-the-state/ Thoughts, notes and comments Fri, 21 Nov 2008 07:13:17 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.1 By: gracchi http://davecole.org/blog/2008/03/14/taxation-and-the-nature-of-the-state/#comment-1006 gracchi Sat, 15 Mar 2008 16:43:01 +0000 http://davecole.org/blog/2008/03/14/taxation-and-the-nature-of-the-state/#comment-1006 Actually the Visigoths in Spain did give up taxation partly because they didn't use it and it became a useful political price to pay for other things they wanted. As to the wider question, yes taxation is merely a descriptive not a prescriptive feature of states- but its one of the most important descriptive features of states and I would argue as well that there are very few prescriptive determinants of state conduct. What a state is is a complex dialogue between the exactions that government exercises and those that the subject are willing to yield. Tax is part of that and one of the most important powers a state can hold- in the 6th century many of the sucessor states to Rome used their control of the apportion of land to replace it. Actually the Visigoths in Spain did give up taxation partly because they didn’t use it and it became a useful political price to pay for other things they wanted.

As to the wider question, yes taxation is merely a descriptive not a prescriptive feature of states- but its one of the most important descriptive features of states and I would argue as well that there are very few prescriptive determinants of state conduct. What a state is is a complex dialogue between the exactions that government exercises and those that the subject are willing to yield. Tax is part of that and one of the most important powers a state can hold- in the 6th century many of the sucessor states to Rome used their control of the apportion of land to replace it.

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