Revenue and Regulation: Lessons for E.U. Leaders from the Roman Empire to the Modern Era

Abstract:     
Government structures are more bureaucratic (and their policies more redistributive) in the European Union than in the United States. The more 'statist' character of Europe is hardly a surprise given the leading role of France in the post-WWII integration of the continent. Economic freedom was never a priority for the French monarchs and republican parliaments. Admiration for the "invisible hand" of the market may have inspired brilliant thinkers such as Cantillon, Say, and Bastiat, but theirs were voices crying in the desert of interventionism. We explore European bureaucracy from the institutional changes of the late Roman Empire through the French Revolution.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 19

working papers series