Ethics & Religion

(Social) Ethics is an important research area the Tax Justice & Poverty project, too, because the many facts and facets collected and presented in the country reports (a.) need criteria to evaluate and prioritize them and (b.) to develop accordingly adequate policy proposals for the subsequent advocacy and campaign work. For that reason, ethical research and reflection is done alongside the compilation of country reports.

This project is rooted in the social doctrine of the Catholic Church, the so-called Catholic Social Teaching (CST). Its main concepts, ideas, principles and values are contained and explained in the Compendium of Social Doctrine of the Church. The most recent results of our ethical reflection are the following papers:

  • Lecture (and PPTSlides) delivered by Jörg Alt at Amsterdam University on 21 March 2019 countering Peter Sloterdijks suggestion to replace taxation by voluntary contrubutions, as outlined in his book „Die nehmende Seite und die gebende Hand“
  • Alt, Jörg: Taxation and Transformation: The use and usefulness of Catholic Social Teaching, taxes and tax-related instruments to advance systemic change? Short Version and  Long Version
  • Three Discussion papers: "Tax Justice vs. a more just taxation" tries to develop criteria with which to distinguish less just from more just taxation. Catholic Social Teachings’ relevance for the project Tax Justice & Poverty elaborates implications of Catholic Social Teaching for developing fair and adequate taxation. The Church and Taxation reviews Bible, church history, papal statements etc. for passages dealing with tax relevant passages.
  • (Short) Paper on Ethical Theses arising from our research project, and chapter 8 of the jointly agreed Short Synthesis  Report.