PUTEREA STATELOR

The article proposes a synthetic evaluation of the political and administrative capacities of the current Romanian state, by comparison with the other member states of the European Union, to extract called public resources (of the „power to tax“). Its central thesis is that the essential attributes of contemporary states lie in the provision of public goods and services that the market economy cannot provide. The main findings are disturbing: 1) Although the Romanian economy, measured by real GDP per capita, has reached the level of 80% of the EU average, tax revenues in Romania are only at the level of 67% compared to this average – a enormous gap which prevents the Romanian state from providing essential public goods and services needed by the current Romanian society; 2) The tax policy in Romania is not only totally ineffective, but also profoundly unfair, because it discriminatorily throws the burden of taxation only on some of its citizens-taxpayers; 3) Despite this state of affairs, the major political parties, regardless of their declared ideological orientations, vigorously campaign for the substantial reduction of taxation and/or the differentiated taxation of certain categories of citizens; 4) If this dangerous policy course continues, Romania will face the „tragedy of the commons“, with all the consequences which derive from this.