Abstract
Do the attempts of modern states to foster tax compliance reflect wider attributes of modernity? This article analyzes the history of the creation of a tax compliance culture in Israel of the 1950s and the various practices, techniques and discourses that were deployed by the state to create model taxpaying citizens. It shows how the specific history of tax compliance can be understood as part of a wider phenomenon, the desire of modern states to create self-policing, normalized subjects. By interpreting the history of tax compliance critically, as part of the attempt of the state to control its citizens, the article suggests a new way of understanding the history of 20th century tax compliance generally and more specifically the history of judicial attempts to tackle tax evasion and tax avoidance.
Disciplines
Comparative and Foreign Law | Jurisprudence | Law and Society | Legal History, Theory and Process | Tax Law
Date of this Version
April 2008
Recommended Citation
Assaf Likhovski
, "Tax Compliance and Modernity" (April 2008). Tel Aviv University Law Faculty Papers. Working Paper 79.
http://law.bepress.com/taulwps/art79
Included in
Comparative and Foreign Law Commons, Jurisprudence Commons, Law and Society Commons, Legal History, Theory and Process Commons, Tax Law Commons
Comments
Assaf Likhovski, "Tax Compliance and Modernity" 32 Law and Social Inquiry 665 (2007).