Taxes and Legitimacy
I think this is a profoundly important observation from The Economist:
"Cash that flows in as tribute from foreign sources replaces the authentic source of governing authority and capacity: taxes. A regime's ability to collect taxes from its own people is one of the key indicators that it has legitimacy. A regime that depends on taxes to function and retain power will seek to assure that it retains legitimacy, by carrying out the necessary functions of governance. "Legitimacy" need not stem from democracy; a stable authoritarian regime, like China, can have one without the other. But it does require that the government govern, as Samuel Huntington used to put it.
"A government that gets its money from foreign handouts doesn't have to govern. It can sit back on its heels and spend its time extorting money from anyone who tries to pursue economic activity in its area. Even foreign aid is perilous to governments' legitimacy, as it orients them away from accountability to their own citizens. That's why the best foreign-aid programmes are usually the cheapest ones. But foreign aid at least gets things done that can outweigh the risk to governments' incentives to govern well. Direct, explicit bribes are far worse. Just think about the incentives. If a warlord reaps a million-dollar reward from America in October for declining to switch allegiance to the Taliban, what is he being encouraged to do in November? Threaten to switch allegiance to the Taliban! One side effect of such a system is the deliberate cultivation of the insurgency by America's "allies", in order to preserve the threat that keeps the money flowing. Another major side effect is the disintegration of central authority, as each governing structure can maximise its access to bribes by threatening to commit treason. We saw this in Vietnam as well, as Corps-level commanders floated rumours about concluding separate deals with the Communists, or declined to carry out military offensives without financial rewards."
http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2009/09/bribes_not_a_cure_for_corrupti.cfm
Taxes and Legitimacy
Hmmm. Would that also apply to the USA and states such as California, which seem to have lost the ability to raise the taxes necessary to pay their bills?
Revolutionary France
This post has me thinking of Revolutionary France or the Roman Empire--both of which were established on the basis of foreign conquest and tribute in lieu of domestic taxation.