Tocqueville Pioneer of Fiscal Sociology

摘要

This article presents an unknown aspect of Tocqueville’s thinking that positionsnhim as a pioneer in the field of fiscal sociology. In Democracy in America, he putsnforward the general trend by democratic societies to increase their public expendi-nture, which would later be known as Wagner’s law. His findings continue to be validnin an era of economic globalization, especially with the resilience of the WelfarenState. In The Old Regime and the Revolution, the demonstration is mainly based onnthe financial changes in the public sector that contributed to destroying politicalnfreedom, accentuating class divisions, and delegitimizing public action whilencognitive and ideological factors precipitated the movement. Tocqueville’s pion-neering work is remarkable for its methodology (although this remains implicit rathernthan explicit) and for its results. Nevertheless it is not referred to by either thenfounders of financial sociology or by current researchers..