| This dissertation argues that serious consideration of how we think and talk about taxation can provide surprising insights in areas not limited to public finance. It offers a political theory of taxation as a step toward reorienting our thinking about the role of taxation as a political institution in America and the wider liberal democratic world.;Taxation has long suffered on the margins of serious political thought, typically treated as simply an instrument of fiscal policy with little theoretical relevance to the foundational concerns of liberal democracy. This has contributed to the intractability of many public debates over fiscal policy, regulation, distributive justice, and most importantly, the rights and responsibilities of citizens. The failure of political thinkers to provide a coherent normative account of the role of taxation as a political institution in liberal democratic states has allowed for the flourishing of rhetorical and conceptual incoherencies that plague contemporary American political discourse.;Laying the groundwork for a political theory of taxation involves uncovering the lingering normative assumptions that are necessary to make sense of our rhetoric and policies. Particular attention is given to the underappreciated role of the principle of taxpayer sovereignty, underlies much of the most prominent tax rhetoric in contemporary politics. By investigating the development of taxation in America and the rhetoric of contemporary tax discourse, this dissertation seeks to bring the influence of taxpayer sovereignty to light in order to critique it and offer alternatives in the form of a political theory of taxation.;The political theory of taxation proposed herein seeks to coherently situate taxation as a political institution within the context of liberal democracy, eradicate the influence of taxpayer sovereignty on contemporary rhetoric and conceptions of taxes, and provide mechanisms for the political empowerment of American taxpayers without allowing taxpayer identity to overwhelm citizenship. |
