2011_06 Doctoral Colloquium

Nate Breznau

tax: people move out of the market, they do barter economy instead

answer: they can't fringe benefits, however, are a problem

taxes make people uneasy, it'll be hard to change their understanding

answer: yes

three problems

1. funding (covered that)
2. standards (Fishkin covers that)
3. Rosenberg / "The Not-So-Common sense"

tax: there's still a tax on capital incomes

answer: yeah, but it's voluntary.

tax: data availability problems, staffing for the PCT

answer: data is already there, staffing should be less, complexity is greatly reduced

Philine Weyrauch

• What's the result? What happens then?
  • pluralism
  • delta in attitudes, knowledge etc.
  • theory building, critical analysis
• Deliberative Democracy: is interest out? (yes!)
• Consider: F. Nullmeier, tanja Pritzlaff (?) on their work on deliberative democracy, their ethnographic studies so to speak
• Do another topic, to control?: Basic Income, WHY TAX?

Maureen

• careful with the condescending tone
• careful with the dysfunctions of pluralist democracy
• consider, and clarify: deliberative democracy vs. participatory democracy
  • consider, read: Francesca Poletta, "Freedom is an endless meeting"
• consider a simulation? Read up on James Kitts' work, Columbia Business School
• It's not just about more engagement.
• Careful about the language
• change the order of items, change the emphasis

Olaf Groh-Samberg

• look at institutions that do political education; they ought to be interested
  • arbeitnehmerkammer, VHS, BPB
• Anna Noack has done stuff with the VHS, this is via Philine
• need to establish a convincing theoretical link between tax and deliberation
• consider, says Olaf, Habermas (Theory of communicative action) on "fragmentisierung des Alltagswissen)
• assumed theoretical link: if you want to hide injustice, than you'd best do it in a really complex system, like tax.
• this can be answered best by comparing tax to other topical areas, where people's knowledge is less biased, and where injustice is not a concern
• Olaf says: knowledge is key.