The National Element in the Development of Fiscal Theory

The study of the works of classical British, German, Italian, Austrian, and Swedish fiscal theorists reveals that the spectacle of the public economy beheld by each author was greatly influenced by the particular array of historically determined considerations traceable to the author's own national heritage. These normative influences continue to color much of today's fiscal-theoretic discourse, notwithstanding the positive backdrop against which the theorizing is normally cast. These arguments highlight an important characteristic of fiscal theorizing: government economic activity takes place not in the rarefied venue reserved for Economic Beings, but in an arena bustling with political, social, ethical, historical, legal, and behavioral considerations influencing taxpayer and tax collector conduct. Fiscal theorists naturally draw upon these factors and fashion their models of the public economy along these lines. What remains to be seen is whether these constructs can be brought under the roof of a unified fiscal theory. Book jacket.

Orhan Kayaalp is Associate Professor of Economics at Lehman College at the City University of New York.