Collaboration vs. Imposition as Motifs for a Theory of Public Finance: Transcending the Goldscheid-Schumpeter Debate

26 Pages Posted: 13 Apr 2015

See all articles by Richard E. Wagner

Richard E. Wagner

George Mason University - Department of Economics; George Mason University - Mercatus Center

Date Written: April 12, 2015

Abstract

This essay is written for a Festschrift to commemorate Jürgen Backhaus’s contributions to political economy on the occasion of his retirement from the University of Erfurt. Jürgen is a penetrating and wide-ranging scholar from whom I have learned much since we first met in 1974. It would be easy to write a book to commemorate the numerous paths of influence and insight I have received from Jürgen. But I have only this paper through which to offer my commemoration and I have chosen a topic that arose at our very first meeting. That topic was the debate between Joseph Schumpeter and Rudolf Goldscheid regarding different approaches to the discharge of Austria’s public debt at the end of the First World War and the breakup of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. That point of departure leads quickly into a consideration of divergent approaches to the theory of public finance, and particularly the conceptualization of capital accounts for political entities and the place of political presuppositions within a theory of public finance.

Keywords: Jürgen Backhaus; Joseph Schumpeter; Rudolf Goldscheid; Knut Wicksell; tax state; entrepreneurial state; Staatswissenschaften; constitutions and capital accounts; politics and public finance

JEL Classification: B15, D60, H61, P51

Suggested Citation

Wagner, Richard E., Collaboration vs. Imposition as Motifs for a Theory of Public Finance: Transcending the Goldscheid-Schumpeter Debate (April 12, 2015). GMU Working Paper in Economics No. 15-30, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2593473 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2593473

Richard E. Wagner (Contact Author)

George Mason University - Department of Economics ( email )

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HOME PAGE: http://mason.gmu.edu/~rwagner/

George Mason University - Mercatus Center ( email )

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HOME PAGE: http://ppe.mercatus.org/scholars/richard-wagner

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