Despotism From The Tax To The Tax Constitutionalism

Undoubtedly, the research on the rule of tax law is an issue to be taken into account in the Chinese tax environment. This research is based on the increasing abuses of authority power due to constraints lacking in the realm of public finance, which have been eroding the foundation of the market economy. The key to the ruling of law lies in the proper restriction and control of political power. Different from current jurisprudential methods, this dissertation tries to expand the studies on the rule of tax law through economic methods. And the subject of this research is mainly confined to the relation between the political power structure and the allocation efficiency of public goods or the economic efficiency. Encircled on the research subject, the dissertation consists of four sections which comprise nine chapters. The first section, namely the first chapter, establishes a simple theoretical analysis frame for deeper study. Based on negotiation theory and new institutional economics, this chapter discusses the different allocation efficiency of public goods under different power structure of societies such as natural state, dictatorial society and society under the rule of law. The second section gives a historical review. Using economic methods to analyze history, this section tries to find out the institutional factors which result in the changes of legal system of taxation. The whole section comprises three chapters, respectively on the history of England, China and the United States. The second chapter analyzes the history of England from Normandy Conquest to Glory Revolution. In England, the development of market and capital accompanied with the course in which the kings of England had to abstain his political power in exchange for the power to levy tax. In the end, the principle of "no taxation without consent" was established. It set up a new stable mechanism of tax-imposing, which prevented the misuse of tax power and effectively protected the property rights and promote innovation. So, England successfully got rid of the Malthus Crisis in the seventeenth century and finally engendered the Industrial Revolution. The third chapter focuses the study on the history of legal taxation in Chinese feudalism times. Because of the singularity of dictatorial power, the tax law in china at that time was unstable, ruined the foundation of economic development and caused the collapse of dynasties one after another. And for the same reason, the market and capital couldn't protect themselves through negotiation and gave birth to such mechanism as done in England. The fourth chapter puts the constitutional history of the United States as the analytic object of tax constitutionalism. From the perspective of public finance, this chapter interprets the meanings of the articles concerning taxation in American Constitution and discusses the causes of the decay of Constitution. The study indicates the limitation of imposing tax through congressional or parliamentary procedure, and emphasizes the importance of constitutional constraint on tax power. The third section deepens the theoretic consideration. This section includes only one chapter. The fifth chapter summarizes the research fruits on taxation constitutionalism, and furthers the analyses of the relation between power structure and allocation efficiency of public goods or economic efficiency. By contrast, the fourth section gives arealistic review. This section consists of four chapters. The sixth chapter points out the difficulties and contradictions in the domain of taxation at present, fully analyzes the relationship between market economy and the rule of tax law, then sets the taxation constitutionality as the goal of reform. The seventh chapter focuses the study on tax legislation. Starting with analyses on the status quo and international comparison, this chapter points out problems of contemporary operation of tax legislation, and puts forward the basic principles by which to divide the tax legislative power vertically and horizontally. Then it deals wit...