Paper's abstract

Philippe Van Parijs, Philosophy of the Tax-System for a Globalised Economy
The general implementation of capitalism makes tax-system more important than ever, because it tends to reduce at the same time (1) the scope of intra-family redistribution through a distribution of income between the members of a single household or a single enlarged family and (2) the scale of the implicit redistribution within the firm through a redistribution of primary incomes substantially diverging from the distribution of productivities. Also because a well understood justice consists in a lasting maximisation of the real freedom of those who own less and requires therefore a major divergence from the distribution that the market spontaneously tends to carry out, according to the productive contributions of everyone. But on the other hand, the globalisation of capitalism weakens even more the tax-system because it does not only magnify the inequalities of primary incomes. It also strengthens the strain on the effort of redistribution by the States, from now on buried in a global market. But for all that, is it necessary to despair of the situation of a tax-system that owes more but can less? Not if it is possible at the same time to gradually hoist the tax-system to a supranational level and to (re)create the conditions for a sturdy fiscal civic responsibility.

Key Words : capitalism, market, redistribution, justice, freedom, globalisation, inequality
t. 46, 2002 : p. 329-348