Politics, Taxation, and the Rule of Law: The Power to Tax in Constitutional Perspective

DONALD P. RACHETER AND RICHARD E. WAGNER, eds., Politics, Taxation, and the Rule of Law: The Power to Tax in Constitutional Perspective (Boston, MA: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2002, pp. vi, 272, $110.00).

This book is an excellent compilation of essays that explore the relation among (1) democratic taxation, (2) the politics of taxation, and (3) the constitutional framework for taxation. Each essay has been carefully selected to address an aspect of this relation, and they all build upon one another.

The introductory essay lays the foundation for subsequent essays by describing each of the three aspects of taxation delineated above. First, a central tenet of democratic taxation is that taxation is something we choose to do to ourselves rather than something being imposed on us by a government. second, the theory of public finance is basically concerned with the taxing and spending activities of a government. However, when politics are incorporated into this theory, democratic fiscal practice might result in benefits for everyone, or it might involve cases where some persons benefit at the expense of others. Third, the degree to which fiscal interactions work for the general benefit of all, as opposed to a means by which some people gain an advantage by imposing burdens on others, will be controlled by the constitutional framework that governs these interactions.

The beginning series of essays examines the fundamental underpinnings between taxation and property rights in a democracy. The second essay posits that our constitutional government was founded on the Lockean notions that individuals possess natural rights in their lives and possessions created by their labors and that a government is necessary to protect its citizens, their liberty, and estates. However, in order to provide such protection, the government needs resources that are obtainable through taxation of its citizens. The third essay explores the premise that taxation converts private property to a form of common property with government as...