The Fiscal Commons

Escobar, Vinzenz Bäumer

doi:10.3167/sa.2020.640204

Cited by 5 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…The Cooperative not only had to cover the financial costs of these fines, but these inspections also prompted the members of the Cooperative to make their organization comply more with the legal requirements of the state, as further non-compliance might lead to more fines and severe legal actions against the Cooperative. I have detailed the exact consequences of this development for the Cooperative in legal terms elsewhere (Bäumer Escobar, 2021). In this article, I want to highlight how the state's politics of mistrust, which upholds 'proper' functioning markets and state provisioning, made the 'economy of trust' my interlocutors strived to create increasingly untenable.…”

Section: The Politics Of Mistrustmentioning

confidence: 99%

“The economy of trust”? Competing grassroots economics and the mobilization of (mis-)trust in a Catalonian cooperative

Escobar

2023

Critique of Anthropology

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Rather than theorizing trust and mistrust in the abstract, recent anthropological scholarship has shown how trust and mistrust emerge in particular social settings. In this article, I build on this scholarship by drawing on fieldwork with the members of an anti-capitalist Catalonian cooperative who looked to create alternative economic systems that were said to be based on trust. The central aim of this article is to redirect analytical attention from the emergence of the experience of (mis-)trust in particular contexts, toward an analysis of how trust and mistrust are mobilized to make particular iterations of an ‘alternative economy’ emerge out of competing grassroots economic conceptualizations. By analysing how trust and mistrust are constituted within a relational field involving the state and a broader landscape of cooperative movements, this article shows that socio-economic formations are continually formed through embodied, affectively charged practices instead of being solely ‘based’ on trust or mistrust.

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Section: The Politics Of Mistrustmentioning

confidence: 99%

“The economy of trust”? Competing grassroots economics and the mobilization of (mis-)trust in a Catalonian cooperative

Escobar

2023

Critique of Anthropology

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“…Taxation is most often discussed as a relationship between citizens and governments. It is primarily governments that introduce or negotiate taxes, and fiscal anthropology shows how different citizens understand their relationship to government and whether forms of taxation appear legitimate (Abelin, 2012; Bäumer Escobar, 2020; Guano, 2010). Although most economic activity is still organized via national government (Hart & Hann, 2009, 6), contemporary capitalisms exceed what is understood as national economies (Carrier, 1997, 12; Mitchell, 1998, 84).…”

Section: Redistribution and Reciprocity In Fiscal Anthropologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Distributed fiscal relations and their imaginaries: Metaphors of redistribution and reciprocity in struggles about distributive justice in Austria

Streinzer

2022

Economic Anthropology

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The article analyzes struggles about distributive justice in Austria, one of the wealthiest countries globally, and proposes a reinforced focus on how metaphors of redistribution and reciprocity create fiscal imaginaries. It analyzes how politicians, lobbyists, and activists strategically mobilize these metaphors in corporate and wealth taxation debates. Campaigns against wealth taxation portray wealth taxation as negative reciprocity and a threat to an imagined middle class. Those arguing in favor of them create images of unjustly appropriated value that needs to be redistributed. The article analyzes those shifts between notions of redistribution and reciprocity and the fiscal imaginaries created through these debates. Notably, the article argues for the necessity to embed discursive analysis within an understanding of contemporary capitalisms. It contrasts the fiscal imaginaries with challenges of fiscal relations, most importantly the distributed character of capital accumulation and the dilemma of the tax state, as governments orchestrate accumulation to capture parts of its value generated via taxation.

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“…Research across disciplines suggests that if taxpayers perceive that they are getting something in exchange for taxes paid, their willingness to comply increases. In this sense, taxation is also reciprocal (Alm et al, 1993;Bäumer, 2020;Bazart & Bonein, 2014;Frey & Torgler, 2007;Huret, 2018;Kauppinen, 2020;Kornhauser, 2007;Levi 1988;Rawlings, 2003)-even when taxes are raised (Hadenius, 1985). Citizens want to get something for taxes paid; accepting their redistributive function means that taxes are spent on issues citizens find worthy, regardless of whether for personal or societal benefit.…”

Section: Why Do People Pay Tax? Reciprocity and Redistribution Within...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Game of tax: Rethinking the relationship between redistribution and reciprocity through a Georgian tax lottery

Larsen

2022

Economic Anthropology

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This article addresses a failed tax lottery in the country of Georgia's rapid yet shaky political and economic development. The purpose of a tax lottery is to formalize transactions and increase tax compliance. It aims to motivate consumers in any commercial transaction to ask for a receipt qua lottery ticket and ensure that businesses pay taxes due. Tax lotteries thus have a dual function: more revenue is collected from businesses, and consumers do soft policing work while also having a chance to win. Taxation and gambling are two very different ways of exchanging. Gambling is mostly voluntary, effortless, and playful, whereas taxation is dull government revenue collection. Yet both gambling and taxation are ways to understand any society and its political life through its reciprocal qualities and redistributive effects. Drawing on anthropological research studying taxation and gambling, this article is a Schumpeterian analysis, as it provides an inlet into how Georgians regard their society. Studying this tax lottery provides an opportunity to rethink the relation between redistribution and reciprocity, and I argue that to understand how citizens accept the redistribution of taxation, we have to attend to its reciprocal qualities.

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The Fiscal Commons

Cited by 5 publications

References 35 publications

“The economy of trust”? Competing grassroots economics and the mobilization of (mis-)trust in a Catalonian cooperative

“The economy of trust”? Competing grassroots economics and the mobilization of (mis-)trust in a Catalonian cooperative

Distributed fiscal relations and their imaginaries: Metaphors of redistribution and reciprocity in struggles about distributive justice in Austria

Game of tax: Rethinking the relationship between redistribution and reciprocity through a Georgian tax lottery

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