Tax Sociology

Tax sociology investigates the fundamental relationship between taxation, State and society. This article presents a literature review and issues on the sociopolitical side of tax sociology. Several social representations are considered : “contribution-tax”, “exchange-tax” and “obligation/constraint/tribute-tax”, but the elaboration of a typology of the tax State emphasizes “contribution-tax” paid by possibly altruist citizen to finance public policies. In the framework of fiscal democracy, the issue is to establish a tax social contract about social, political and territorial/environmental functions of the interventionist tax State, in a critical dialogue with economic analysis. The typology of tax deviance, inspired freely from the labelling theory, shows that tax political legitimacy is essential, and that the cognitive rationality approach accounts for the taxpayer’s decision: indeed, the taxpayer does not (solely) react in accordance with the utilitarian self-interest approach. The conclusion suggests a short debate on the effects of economic globalization on the sociopolitical autonomy of State