THE POLITICAL EFFICIENCY OF GENERAL TAXATION

If political decisions are made by legislative majorities, a constitut ional constraint requiring generality in the imposition of taxes will be economically efficient. In the absence of such a constraint, majori ties will tend to impose differentially high taxes on members of polit ical minorities, and such differentiation opens up several sources for resource waste. This argument lends support for a uniform proportiona l rate of tax on all incomes.