Although, as Benjamin Franklin joked, nothing is certain except death and taxes, only the former can be considered the great equalizer. Death comes for all of us, regardless of our social or economic status. Taxes, on the other hand, have always been much more complex.
New book by Vanessa S. Williamson. The Cost of Democracy: The Revolutionary Power of Taxation in American History, takes us on a fascinating journey through the history of taxation from colonization to the present day. At the same time, it clearly and, I would say, indisputably proves that taxation is far from being a dry matter of fiscal policy, but lies at the very heart of democracy.
Senior Fellow at the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, Senior Fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution, and author of the book Read My Lips: Why Americans Are Proud to Pay TaxesWilliamson is eminently qualified to expose the complex relationship between tax policy, wealth distribution, and political power. What's convenient for us is that she does this in clear, accessible prose, while revealing stories that are sometimes horrifying, sometimes humorous, and always surprising.
Each of the book's three parts—Taxation for a Republic, Taxation for Black Liberation, and Taxation for General Welfare—include little-known stories that nonetheless had a profound impact on how we function as a country today. Each chapter revealed a startling fact that I had never encountered before. And I say this as someone who reads a lot of U.S. history and has developed a training module on the racial history of taxation in this country.
Take the Boston Tea Party, for example. Like many, I learned that the colonists were tired of paying taxes even though they had no representation in the British Parliament. What I didn't learn was that “the patriots who threw tea into Boston Harbor were not against tax increases, but against a corporate tax.” cut.The British government's plan to keep the East India Company afloat would actually make tea less expensive for the colonists. The Patriots' real concern was not taxation but self-government—so much so that they continued to pay taxes, redirecting their payments to the Patriot Treasurer rather than the Loyalist Treasurer. tax yourself“
The early chapters of the book show that even the framers of the Constitution were primarily concerned with limiting popular control over public funds. “Our federal government,” Williamson argues, “was created by elites who feared that the American people had too much power over the public treasury.” Alexander Hamilton, who also advocated lifelong appointments for senators and the president, made his contempt for the masses clear: “They say that the voice of the people is the voice of God… it is not true. People are restless and changeable; they rarely judge or determine the truth.”
This antipathy to true and full participation in democracy is one of the main threads of the book, and it is important for understanding how tax policy was used to define—and limit—citizenship along race and class lines. Williamson argues that “public revenues are most fiercely contested when the size of the public itself is contested.” Whenever marginalized groups have demanded inclusion, from working-class suffrage movements in Britain to the civil rights era in the United States, the backlash has often involved taxation.
Especially in the second and third sections. The price of democracy demonstrates how, time and time again, people from the poor, working and middle classes have fought to raise taxes (including their own) to meet the general needs of society. But at every turn, Williamson writes: “The possibility of middle-income people having a say in the tax system continually leads to wealthy people undermining government's democratic practices and fiscal capacity.”
Perhaps most frightening is how familiar today's anti-tax and “taxpayer's rights” rhetoric sounds. It's understandable why Williamson notes in the introduction, “It may well be a matter of temperament whether readers overall will find it more reassuring or discouraging to know that 'we were like this before'.” The echo across the centuries is unmistakable and unsettling.
Although this would be a useful read at any time, The price of democracy feels needed today. The content of the book embodies the Sankofa principle, reminding us of the importance of looking to the past to build a better future. Reading it will be useful for anyone who cares about preserving democracy.
