Yves here. Gary Feinman makes a provocative but credible argument that taxation is fundamental to having and preserving a representative form of government. The alternatives, such as reliance on slavery or piracy, concentrate power and wealth while also reducing accountability.
By Gary M. Feinman, an archaeologist and the MacArthur curator of anthropology at the Field Museum of Natural History in ...
Feinman’s argument presents a compelling historical case for taxation as a cornerstone of representative governance. The strongest version of his narrative is that fiscal structures shape political outcomes: when governments depend on citizens for revenue, they must negotiate, justify, and institutionalize taxation, creating accountability. This aligns with historical examples where external revenue sources—like colonial extraction or slave labor—enabled autocratic rule by removing the need for ...