Publication details

"The Distinction Between Taxation and Public Service in the Debate on Emigration." Law, Ethics and Philosophy

Article

Author(s): Kollár, Eszter
Year of publication: 2017

Abstract: Are taxation and public service requirement for prospective emigrants justifiable in a liberal state? Gillian Brock thinks that taxation and service are normatively on a par. By contrast, Michael Blake thinks that public service is impermissible, and only justified under emergency conditions when the liberal state itself is under threat. I argue that neither Brock nor Blake have adequately argued their case. Brock’s normative grounds of obligations and how exactly prospective emigrants incur enforceable obligations are not spelled out in sufficient detail. As a result, she is too quick to draw an analogy between taxation and service requirement, without considering the morally salient difference between the two. I discuss a plausible ground, fair reciprocity in social cooperation, and draw out its implications for Brock’s view. By contrast, Blake has not adequately shown that restricting life plans directly is unjustifiable, while restricting life plans indirectly by reducing the resources available to persons is justifiable. His account only shows that public service requires a different, more compelling justification than taxation. He does not, however, offer adequate support for the extreme justificatory burden he places on public service requirement. To conclude, both authors owe us an account of the resources and powers that can be legitimately claimed for purposes of social justice; whether there is a tenable normative boundary between transferring resources to the needy versus providing socially useful services to them.

Keywords: Brain Drain, Emigration, Reciprocity, Emigration Tax, Compulsory Public Service

Research area: Research Area 1: The Normativity of Normative Orders: Origins, Vanishing Points, Performativitiy
Research project: Sustainable Development, Global Governance, and Justice
Subject(s): political science, philosophy