Taxation, Economic Prosperity, and Distributive Justice: Volume 23, Part 2

These essays explore a just tax system, and its moral foundations.

Ellen Frankel Paul (Edited by), Fred D. Miller, Jr (Edited by), Jeffrey Paul (Edited by)

9780521685993, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 14 August 2006

316 pages
22.8 x 15.3 x 1.6 cm, 0.43 kg

What constitutes a just tax system, and what are its moral foundations? Should a society's tax regime be designed to achieve a just distribution of wealth among its citizens, or should such a regime be designed to promote economic growth, rising standards of living, and increasing levels of employment? Are these two goals compatible or incompatible? Why should justice not require, or at least lead to, an increase in general prosperity? The essays in this volume examine the history of tax policies and the normative principles that have informed the selection of various types of taxes and tax regimes; economic data to discover which tax policies lead to economic growth; particular theories of justice or property rights regarding the design of tax systems; and other essays propose specific tax reforms. Still others challenge traditional theories of taxation, offering new ways of understanding the fiscal relationship between governments and their citizens.

1. Social philosophy and tax regimes in the United States, 1763 to the present W. Elliot Brownlee
2. The impact of tax policy on economic growth, income distribution and allocation of taxes James D. Gwartney and Robert A. Lawson
3. Taxes, growth, equity and welfare Richard Vedder
4. The consequences of taxation Joel Slemrod
5. Justice: a conservative view John Kekes
6. Non-absolute rights and libertarian taxation Eric Mack
7. Taxation, the private law and distributive justice Kevin A. Kordana and David H. Tabachnick
8. Taxation, the private law and distributive justice David H. Tabachnick
9. The uneasy case for capital taxation Edward J. McCaffery
10. Households and the fiscal system Edward J. McCaffery
11. Taxation, the state and the community Jeffrey Schoenblum
12. Choice, catallaxy and just taxation: contrasting architectonics for fiscal theorizing Richard E. Wagner
13. Government as investor: tax policy and the state Jonathan R. Macey.

Subject Areas: Social & political philosophy [HPS]