Infinite Regress: Virginia School Neoliberalism and the Tax Revolt

This article examines the fortunes of American government in light work James M. Buchanan, Virginia school political economist whose thinking on constitutional revolution played a formative, if largely unrecognized, role shaping tax revolt. By looking backwards, to an earlier wave and spending limits enacted South during Redemption era, forwards, increasingly regressive nature local revenue generation wake revolt, this shows that neoliberalism is less argument against taxation than favor forms are rarely acknowledged as such—user fees, fines, flat-rate levies. The city Ferguson, Missouri, which has become infamous for its exorbitant use municipal ordinance violations court fees fund services, examined real-world experiment public finance.