Neo-liberalism and the Tax State1

This essay explores why economic liberalism in general and neo-liberalism in particular proved so resilient following the 2008 financial crash after so many ideas and policies associated with it had been discredited. It examines the different paradigms which have defined economic liberalism in the past, and the particular novel features of neo-liberalism, and its various strands, including the Austrian school, Ordo-liberalism, economic libertarianism, public choice, monetarism, and supply side economics. It looks at some of the deep roots of neo-liberalism in ideas about the relationship between households, states and markets, and how this relates to its ideas about the company as a corporate household and the state as a public household. The theory of the tax state became a key component of both economic liberalism and neo-liberalism in the twentieth century.