Concept and origins
Schumpeter (1918) argued that a people's spirit, culture and social structure are written in its fiscal history. He saw the modern state as a 'tax state' sustained by citizens' taxes, linking state and citizen through taxation, a theme related to social contract theory.
Taxation and state formation
Tilly (1990) argued that taxing to fund wars built European states, and Levi (1988) analysed rulers' bargaining with subjects to raise revenue. Moore (2004) showed states relying on oil or aid rather than taxes are less accountable, and Besley and Persson (2009) treated fiscal capacity as core state capacity. The topic connects to state autonomy.
The new fiscal sociology
Campbell (1993) consolidated the field, and Martin, Mehrotra and Prasad (2009) proposed a new fiscal sociology linking taxation to social contracts, citizenship and inequality. It engages economic ideas such as fiscal illusion and the Leviathan hypothesis.
FAQ
- What is fiscal sociology in simple terms?
- Studying how states tax and spend to understand the relationship between state and society.
- What is a tax state?
- A modern state funded by citizens' taxes rather than the ruler's own property.
Sources reviewed: 2026-10-26
References
- Schumpeter, J. A. (1991). The crisis of the tax state. In R. Swedberg (Ed.), The economics and sociology of capitalism (pp. 99–140). Princeton University Press. (Original work published 1918) The founding essay of fiscal sociology.
- Levi, M. (1988). Of rule and revenue. University of California Press. Rulers as revenue maximisers.
- Tilly, C. (1990). Coercion, capital, and European states, AD 990–1990. Basil Blackwell. War, taxation and state formation.
- Campbell, J. L. (1993). The state and fiscal sociology. Annual Review of Sociology, 19, 163–185. A review of fiscal sociology.
- Moore, M. (2004). Revenues, state formation, and the quality of governance in developing countries. International Political Science Review, 25(3), 297–319. Revenue sources and governance in developing countries.
- Martin, I. W., Mehrotra, A. K., & Prasad, M. (Eds.). (2009). The new fiscal sociology: Taxation in comparative and historical perspective. Cambridge University Press. Agenda of the new fiscal sociology.
- Besley, T., & Persson, T. (2009). The origins of state capacity: Property rights, taxation, and politics. American Economic Review, 99(4), 1218–1244. Taxation as core state capacity.