Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

You Get What You Pay For: Historicizing Business Metaphors Of Government, Principles Of Justice In Taxation, And “Benefit Theory”, Mindy Peden

Political Science

The ideas that governments ought to operate on business principles and that citizens are no different than consumers have become increasingly commonplace in neoliberal times. Many have pointed to the threat this poses for democratic government. Mindy Peden explores the vulnerability of liberal ideology to such a way of thinking by showing how even liberals who wish to reject it, such as John Stuart Mill, are unable to free themselves from the line of reasoning inherent in the benefit theory that underpins the dominant approach to taxation. Economic imperatives have always been a central driving force of Canadian immigration policy. …