An "exception culturelle"? French Sensationist political economy and the shaping of public economics

Gilbert Faccarello

Post-Print from HAL

Abstract: This paper examines some ideas developed in the field of public economics by French Sensationist political economists, from Turgot and Condorcet to the young Jean-Baptiste Say. An ideal-typical account of their position is based on the fact that issues raised by public expenditure and revenue are not dealt with independently. Instead, a strong link between the two sides of the budget is emphasised, an approach arising out of political considerations concerning human rights and equity. Following on from this they develop a theory of public expenditure based on public goods -- national and local -- and externalities, and a theory of taxation culminating in a justification of progressive taxation. The central section of the paper forms a kind of pivotal point in the analysis, showing how the above political and ethical requirements of the theory lead to the first estimation of the optimal amount of public expenditure and revenue -- involving an equilibrium at the margin.

Keywords: History of public economics; Turgot; Condorcet; Roederer; Say; Public goods; Externalities; Equity in taxation; Progressive taxation; Optimal amount of public expenditure and revenue; Equilibrium at the margin.; Economie publique; Biens publics; Externalités; Impôt équitable; Impôt progressif; Montant optimal de la dépense publique et de l'impôt; Equilibre à la marge. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2006
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Published in European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, 2006, 13 (1), pp.1-38

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-00732921

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Post-Print from HAL
Bibliographic data for series maintained by CCSD ().