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Warfare, Taxation, and Political Change: Evidence from the Italian Risorgimento

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 November 2011

MARK DINCECCO ,
GIOVANNI FEDERICO  and
ANDREA VINDIGNI
MARK DINCECCO*
Affiliation:
Assistant Professor, IMT Lucca Institute for Advanced Studies, Piazza San Ponziano 6, Lucca, Italy 55100. Email: m.dincecco@imtlucca.it.
GIOVANNI FEDERICO*
Affiliation:
Senior Research Fellow, European University Institute, Via Boccaccio 121, Florence, Italy 50133. Email: giovanni.federico@eui.eu.
ANDREA VINDIGNI*
Affiliation:
Associate Professor, IMT Lucca Institute for Advanced Studies, Piazza San Ponziano 6, Lucca, Italy 55100. Email: a.vindigni@imtlucca.it.
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Abstract

We examine the relationships between warfare, taxation, and political change in the context of the political unification of the Italian peninsula. Using a comprehensive new database, we argue that external and internal threat environments had significant implications for the demand for military strength, which in turn had important ramifications for fiscal policy and the likelihood of constitutional reform and related improvements in the provision of nonmilitary public services. Our analytic narrative complements recent theoretical and econometric works about state capacity. By emphasizing public finances, we also uncover novel insights about the forces underlying state formation in Italy.

“The budget is the skeleton of the state, stripped of any misleading ideologies.”

Sociologist Rudolf Goldscheid, 19261

Type
ARTICLES
Information
The Journal of Economic History , Volume 71 , Issue 4 , December 2011 , pp. 887 - 914
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 2011

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