Guidelines for a Democratic Financial System
From this you can see that it was relatively easy to demand the participation of most or all the citizens (Aristotle expected them to participate in the decision- making process by attending public meetings and voting on issues). Today we would call this type of democracy, or style of government a participatory democracy. It is seldom adopted, however, because of the size of the population in most countries. Aristotle was also a student of Plato, another famous ancient philosopher. It is his model of politics and democracy that most modern Western countries try to follow in some form or another today.
Aristotle, born in 384 BC, was one of the most important philosophers of all time. He was Plato’s most famous pupil and a renowned teacher and scientist in ancient Greece. His writings, mostly notes from his lectures, examine numerous topics, including logic, metaphysics, politics, science, and ethics.
The Magna Carta (from the Latin: great charter)
King John of England signed this document on 15 June 1215 because his barons sought protection for themselves and their people. It depicted the Constitutional relationship between the Crown (King), the Common Council (Te House of Commons in the British Parliament) and the citizens of England. Although it does not speak about tax (the systematic collection of taxes did not exist then), it does stipulate that no aid shall be collected, nor property confiscated by the King from his subjects without the consent of the Common Council. However, please note, this concerned the King’s nobles and not the common people.
“No scrutage (type of tax) or aid shall be imposed in our kingdom, unless by the common council of our kingdom, except to redeem our person, and to make our oldest son a knight, and once to marry our eldest daughter; and for this there shall be paid a reasonable aid.”
Tis very famous document laid the foundation for the principle of “No taxation without representation”. Tis was the very cry of the people in the American War of Independence.
The American War of Independence
Te British government expected the people of America to pay them taxes without giving them any representation in the British Parliament.
Te American colonists managed their own affairs up to 1765, but then King George III of England decided to exercise his own authority and imposed certain taxes on them. He raised an army to exercise this authority and used the income from these taxes to pay for it. As you can imagine, the colonists, who were not represented in the British Parliament, were very unhappy about this – in fact this single event was one of the causes of the American War of Independence.
It is interesting to note that the American colonists appealed to the Magna Carta, saying that the King had no right to tax them as they were not represented in the British Parliament. Te king and his minister of finance, George Grenville, tried different types of taxes which were all boycotted.
Finally a tax of three pennies on one pound of imported tea was introduced but a group of boycotters, under the direction of Samuel Adams, boarded three ships in the port of Boston and threw the cargo of tea into the sea – this is still known as Te Boston Tea Party (see picture). What was perhaps shameful was that this group dressed up as Native- American Indians, so that these indigenous people would be blamed! Te British government’s answer was to close the port. Soon aſter this incident the war broke out.
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