Abstract
Is the emperor naked? Is the sovereign really broke? The question may seem preposterous. After all, the sovereign can force its taxpayers to pay. He is well-organized. He has judges and policemen and, if necessary, soldiers to enforce its will. Moreover, in democratic countries, the taxpayers are the sovereign; they own the state, they have no emperor but themselves, and they will choose to pay with their own money. But what if they cannot or will not pay?
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Notes
A technical point: OECD (2011a), p. 59, provides a similar graph that excludes Turkey and Chile from the computation of the averages because data for these countries were missing in some of the years. I reinclude Turkey in the average because the 2007 figure for this country is available. My average thus covers 33 OECD countries instead of the 32 in the original graph of OECD (2011a).
See OECD (2010).
Tanzi and Schuknecht (2000), p. 6. 4. Smith (1762). There is obviously a typo in this book as Smith must have
meant “of the half,” not “or the half.”
OECD, dataset of Economic Outlook No 90, data extracted December 2, 2011.
De Jouvenel (1945), pp. 23 and 101. 7. On the problem of sexual delinquents, see “Unjust and Ineffective,” The
Economist, August 6, 2009, at http://www.economist.com/node/14164614 (accessed June 17, 2012).
See http://www2.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2009/data/table_74.html (accessed January 9, 2011).
See Chassaigne (1906).
Spooner (1870). 11. Rousseau (1762).
Friedman (2011) and “Greece’s Agony: What Have We Become?” The Economist, June 30, 2011, at http://www.economist.com/node/21550421 (accessed April 8, 2012).
Buchanan and Wagner (1977), p. 33.
Neiertz and Cronk (2012).
De la Boétie (1577). 16. De Jouvenel (1945), p. 21.
Olson (1971).
On the parenting license, see Lemieux (2001). 19. See Rawls (1971).
Buchanan (1975) and Brennan and Buchanan (1980).
See De Jasay (1996). 22. See Lancaster (2011).
See http://elsa.berkeley.edu/~saez/TabFig2007.xls (accessed January 13, 2011). 24. Tax Foundation (2009, 2011).
“Obama to Visit Swing State to Push His Millionnaire Tax,” Wall Street Journal, April 9, 2012, at http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000 1424052702304587704577334130244925226.ht ml?mod=WSJ _hp_ MIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsTop (accessed April 9, 2012).
“Facebook Co-Founder Saverin Gives Up U.S. Citizenship before IPO,” Bloomberg, May 11, 2012, at http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012– 05–11/facebook-co-founder-saverin-gives-up-u-s-citizenship-before-ipo. html (accessed June 14, 2012).
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© 2013 Pierre Lemieux
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Lemieux, P. (2013). The Emperor’S Praetorians. In: The Public Debt Problem. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137313027_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137313027_6
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