"Fiscal Capacity and Democratic Capacity Are Mutually Constitutive"

"Throughout American history, conflicts over taxation have reflected enduring struggles over power, citizenship, and the meaning of self-government. Progressive reformers have deployed the taxing power not merely to raise revenue, but to sustain democratic ideals such as representation, accountability, equality and civic participation. Tax protestors, by contrast, have often challenged both the reach of the state and the use of tax revenues to fund particular public goods and services. By recovering this long history, Williamson compels us to take seriously the wisdom captured in the IRS building’s epigraph and Justice Holmes's statement.  If taxes are indeed the price we pay for a civilized society, Williamson's sweeping history shows that they are also the price we pay to build, sustain, and constantly redefine democracy."

Ajay K. Mehrotra of The Society for U.S. Intellectual History reviews Vanessa Williamson's The Price of Democracy: The Revolutionary Power of Taxation in American History.