On Public Finance and Constitutional States (As a Theoretical Preface to Fiscal Constitutionalism)

Author: Zhou Gangzhi
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-03-01
Features: Fiscal constitution, as a fundamental component of the constitutional system in various countries, has always been valued by both Chinese and foreign constitutional scholars. However, why is national finance so important to constitutional systems? In the new historical period, how should China address various fiscal issues and strengthen constitutional construction? Research on this topic in China's constitutional scholarship has been very insufficient, while discussions in the field of fiscal studies have often focused on economic efficiency analysis and lacked institutional thinking from the perspective of constitutional law. This book attempts to analyze the intrinsic connection between a market economy, public finance, and constitutional states based on the fundamental proposition that "the state is materially dependent on finance." It seeks to reveal the economic roots of constitutional states from the perspective of public finance, dissect the constituent elements of constitutional states, and conduct a detailed analysis of the necessity, feasibility, and specific strategies for China to build a constitutional state. The book will attempt to demonstrate that ensuring human rights is the sole value of constitutionalism, or that human rights are both the logical starting point and the ultimate destination of constitutionalism. The book employs social science methods to analyze the necessity and feasibility of improving constitutional systems, uses relevant economic statistical data to explain the structure of China's government fiscal expenditures and the positioning of government functions, and explores the fiscal dilemmas faced by the Chinese government and their solutions, and so on.
Based on the fundamental proposition of the state's material dependence on finance, the book conducts a comparative analysis of various constitutional struggles centered around public finance issues in the UK, the US, France, Germany, and China under different historical backgrounds. It reveals the correlations and relevant constitutional principles between a market economy, public finance, and constitutional systems through historical facts, and analyzes the common elements of various constitutional system models, namely, human rights protection as the dimension of constitutional value, representative institutions as the dimension of constitutional systems, and the principle of power limitation as the dimension of constitutional practice. Of course, within the limits of time, the author will also attempt to conduct a comparative study of fiscal constitutional norms in various countries.