CST214 | Sovereignty, Taxation and Citizenship

With the onset of globalisation, the deregulation of labour and capital markets and the decline of the welfare state, our outlook and understanding of territorial sovereignty, citizenship and national belonging has changed considerably. The power of financial capital and the rising competition among states to attract foreign investment to their shores have altered institutions and structures of governance, particularly in developing nations with significant consequences for their citizens. One domain where this has become obvious is in tax laws and the domestic regulatory landscape of states. How does tax become an instrument wielded by states to compete with rivals in the international state system? What is the global financial architecture that allows states to deploy their right to write laws, rather commercialise their sovereignty to offer tax breaks to foreign investors and corporates?

In order to answer these questions, the course will take the students through a historical journey that traces how states and corporations have always had a symbiotic relationship with each other, colluding, competing and sharing power in what were diverse kinds of sovereignty arrangements. If states had sovereign authority, capitalists had sovereign power-the first revolving around a logic of territorial and war-making monopolies and the second, of profit-making.

In the second part of the course, beginning week 5, the course will explore the history of income taxes in Europe as linked to the emergence of ideals and institutions of democracy. It will then go on to probe the birth of tax havens, following decolonisation and the end of the British empire in the 20th century.

The third part of the course beginning week 8 is centred on what scholars have called the internationalisation of the state, or the incursion of diaspora elites, international financial organisations like the World Bank and IMF into the policy-making enclaves of nation-states, raising questions on foreign intervention in domestic affairs, particularly tax laws and regulations. The course ends with discussions on the changing notions of citizenship, especially Golden Visas, Citizenship by Investment and what these mean for democracy and development, globally.

This is a standalone course, and may be of interest to students who wish to major in taxation laws, international relations and public policy. The course includes essays and chapters from scholarly books that tease out the themes and issues laid out here. However, reports compiled by Tax Justice Network and other watchdogs will be discussed in the lectures. Classroom lectures and seminar style discussions will be the primary pedagogical methods used.

The course will be spread over 10 weeks, with 2 sessions in each week covering a particular theme. The week wise distribution below lists the themes and the sequence in which they will be covered.