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Zakat: Islam’s missed opportunity to limit predatory taxation

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  • Timur Kuran

    (Duke University)

Abstract

One of Islam’s five canonical pillars is a predictable, fixed, and mildly progressive tax system called zakat. It was meant to finance various causes typical of a pre-modern government. Implicit in the entire transfer system was personal property rights as well as constraints on government—two key elements of a liberal order. Those features could have provided the starting point for broadening political liberties under a state with explicitly restricted functions. Instead, just a few decades after the rise of Islam, zakat opened the door to arbitrary political rule and material insecurity. A major reason is that the Quran does not make explicit the underlying principles of governance. It simply outlines the specifics of zakat as they related to conditions in seventh-century Arabia.

Suggested Citation

  • Timur Kuran, 2020. "Zakat: Islam’s missed opportunity to limit predatory taxation," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 182(3), pages 395-416, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:pubcho:v:182:y:2020:i:3:d:10.1007_s11127-019-00663-x
    DOI: 10.1007/s11127-019-00663-x
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Becker, Sascha O. & Pfaff, Steven, 2022. "Church and State in historical political economy," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 1409, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
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    3. Gregory W. Caskey & Ilia Murtazashvili, 2022. "The predatory state and coercive assimilation: The case of the Uyghurs in Xinjiang," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 191(1), pages 217-235, April.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Zakat; Islam; Taxation; Predation; Governance; Property rights; Poverty;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • N25 - Economic History - - Financial Markets and Institutions - - - Asia including Middle East
    • N45 - Economic History - - Government, War, Law, International Relations, and Regulation - - - Asia including Middle East
    • O43 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - Institutions and Growth
    • O53 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Asia including Middle East
    • K34 - Law and Economics - - Other Substantive Areas of Law - - - Tax Law
    • H13 - Public Economics - - Structure and Scope of Government - - - Economics of Eminent Domain; Expropriation; Nationalization

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