Social welfare democracy and progressive taxation

A socio-ethical perspective

Abstract

The welfare state and the question of financing it are an ongoing topic of political debate. It is notorious that the focus of attention and analysis is less on government revenue than on government spending. On the one hand, it is well known that taxes are a ›tool for raising funds‹ for the treasury with regard to covering socially necessary needs and the financing of public infrastructure. On the other hand, the state can also use taxes as a ›control instrument‹ to achieve certain effects. This article on social democracy and progressive taxation focuses on progressive taxes, whose use is considered in terms of two functions: the extent to which taxes generate sufficient means for modern statehood, to fulfil or finance its tasks, in this case primarily the statehood of the social or welfare state, and the extent to which they are capable of protecting the democratic community by specifically limiting ›excessive wealth‹. The text therefore examines the extent to which the social state and democracy equally require progressive taxation. With an interest in intellectual history, it also addresses arguments for progressive taxation as put forward from a Christian solidarity perspective in the German Empire and the Weimar Republic among others by Heinrich Pesch SJ, Matthias Erzberger and Heinrich Lechtape. The reason why an argument based on solidarity theory needs to be redefined is made plausible by the example of cost increases in social infrastructures, for which the state must spend more and more in order to maintain the high quality of these infrastructures and social services and keep them accessible and affordable for all. Finally, further arguments are presented that shape the philosophical and socio-ethical debates on progressive taxation and the democratic limitation of ›excessive wealth‹.