The intellectual foundations of the modern American fiscal state

摘要

At the turn of the twentieth century, the U.S. system of public finance under-went a dramatic structural transforma-tion. The late-nineteenth-century sys-tem of indirect national taxes-associ-ated mainly with the highly partisan tariff and regressive excise taxes on al-cohol and tobacco-was eclipsed in the early twentieth century by a profession-ally administered, graduated income tax that soon accounted for more than half of all federal tax revenue. This seismic shift toward direct and progressive tax-ation marked the emergence of a new fiscal polity, one guided not simply by the functional need for revenue, but by social concerns about justice, fairness, and the equitable distribution of fiscal obligations.