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One of the most important problems to resolve is completely bringing out of obscurity, rendering
visible to all eyes[8] the elements of collection and expenditures on which the use of the public
fortunes held in the hands of the government is based. This result was obtained by the creation of what
one calls in modern language the State budget, which is the outline or estimate of collected taxes and
expenditures, previewed not for a distant period of time, but each year for use the following year. The
annual budget is thus the capital point and, in a certain way, the generator of the financial situation that
improves or worsens in proportion to its proven results. The items that compose the budget are
prepared by the different ministers in the department into which their services are placed. As the basis
for their work, these ministers take the allocations of previous budgets, to which they introduce
modifications, additions and necessary cut-backs. The whole thing is submitted to the minister of
finance, who redacts the documents that have been transmitted to him and who presents to the
legislative assembly what one [today] calls the projected budget. This great work -- published, printed
and reproduced in a thousand newspapers -- unveils to all eyes[9] the domestic and foreign policies of
the State, as well as its civil, judicial and military administration. It is examined, discussed and voted
upon by the country's representatives, after which it is executed in the same manner as the other laws of
the State.
Machiavelli: Allow me to admire the clarity of deduction and the propriety of terminology --
completely modern -- with which the illustrious author of the Spirit of the Laws has extracted the
slightly vague financial theories and sometimes slightly ambiguous financial terms from the great work
that has rendered him immortal.
Montesquieu: The Spirit of the Laws is not a financial treatise.
Machiavelli: Your sobriety on this point all the more merits being praised as you have been able to
speak quite competently. Please continue, I beseech you: I follow you with the greatest interest.
[1] Author's note: Book XIII, Chapter X. [Translator's note: "Taxes ought to be very light in despotic
governments: otherwise who would be at the trouble of tilling the land? Besides, how is it possible to
pay heavy duties in a government that makes no manner of return to the different contributions of the
subject?"]
[2] Note the great distance here from Karl Marx's idea that capitalism (the capitalist State) rules by
immiseration, by immiserating the proletariat. But see footnote [4] below.
[3] The French word used here, errements, also means "bad habits."
[4] Today, the situation is reversed: the rich pay no taxes and the poor and working classes are heavily
taxed.
[5] The English word "liens" (claims on property as security for the payment of a debt) is relevant here.
[6] The French word used here, perception, is quite remarkable: it means both "tax collection" and
"perception"; that which is perceptible is both "collectible" and "sensible."
[7] The French words used here, controle and publicite, are very suggestive: the first can also be
translated as "auditing" or "verification," and the second evokes what today one calls financial
"transparency," which of course is a visual metaphor.
[8] See footnotes [6] and [7] above.
[9] See footnotes [6] and [7] above.
(Translated from the French by NOT BORED! December 2007. Footnotes by the translator, except
where noted.)
Nineteenth Dialogue
Montesquieu: One can say that the creation of the budgetary system has involved all the other
financial guarantees that are today shared by the well-regulated political societies.
Thus, the first law that was necessarily imposed by the economy of the budget mandated that the
requested appropriations are in relation to the existing resources. This is an equilibrium that must
constantly be rendered visible[1] by the real and authentic figures. To better assure this important result
-- so that the legislator who votes on the propositions that are made to him does not submit too
enthusiastically -- one has had recourse to a very wise measure. One has divided the general budget of
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