TY - JOUR
T1 - Warfare, Taxation, and Political Change
T2 - Evidence from the Italian Risorgimento
AU - Dincecco, Mark
AU - Federico, Giovanni
AU - Vindigni, Andrea
N1 - Copyright:
Copyright 2017 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2011
Y1 - 2011
N2 - We examine the relationships between warfare, taxation, and political change in the context of the political unification of the Italian peninsula. Using a comprehensive new database, we argue that external and internal threat environments had significant implications for the demand for military strength, which in turn had important ramifications for fiscal policy and the likelihood of constitutional reform and related improvements in the provision of nonmilitary public services. Our analytic narrative complements recent theoretical and econometric works about state capacity. By emphasizing public finances, we also uncover novel insights about the forces underlying state formation in Italy. “The budget is the skeleton of the state, stripped of any misleading ideologies.” Sociologist Rudolf Goldscheid, 1926.
AB - We examine the relationships between warfare, taxation, and political change in the context of the political unification of the Italian peninsula. Using a comprehensive new database, we argue that external and internal threat environments had significant implications for the demand for military strength, which in turn had important ramifications for fiscal policy and the likelihood of constitutional reform and related improvements in the provision of nonmilitary public services. Our analytic narrative complements recent theoretical and econometric works about state capacity. By emphasizing public finances, we also uncover novel insights about the forces underlying state formation in Italy. “The budget is the skeleton of the state, stripped of any misleading ideologies.” Sociologist Rudolf Goldscheid, 1926.
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U2 - 10.1017/S002205071100218X
DO - 10.1017/S002205071100218X
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84865411208
VL - 71
SP - 887
EP - 914
JO - Journal of Economic History
JF - Journal of Economic History
SN - 0022-0507
IS - 4
ER -