Four essays on fundamental issues of public finance: Fiscal anthropology, the gift, the commons, and the meci

The dissertation calls for a reconstruction of the discipline of public finance from a critical perspective, starting from the claim that public finance theory is under- and strictly-theorized. In other words, in an academic environment where the dissatisfaction with existing disciplinary boundaries has significantly increased, the thesis purports to open new vistas for the entire discipline on four axes. Against this background, the present thesis consists of four related but independent chapters. The first step towards challenging and organizing alternatives to the current situation of the discipline is to rethink the public finance theory from an anthropological perspective. To that end, the thesis sketches the broad outlines of the new and nascent theory, "fiscal anthropology" and thus places the idea of public finance in conversation with anthropology to fashion new theoretical and practical categories. The dissertation then explores the possibility of understanding 'tax' on the ground of anthropology and its fundamental concept, "the gift". By following the paths opened up by anthropological imagination and thus conducting thought experiments, the very necessity of changing the conceptual core of tax and moving beyond the idea of grasping tax relation as a matter of routine enters the picture. In line with looking for a fresh angle on tax, the third way to proceed with reimagining the discipline is to dissolve and redefine the principal terms. To that end, the dissertation radically frames "the commons" and translates the concept into public finance theory with an entirely different interpretation. As a final discussion, the thesis responds to the claim that social sciences have no basis in real-life issues with a field study conducted in Fındıklı District of Rize Province on the culture of meci and discusses the issues raised throughout the dissertation in the context of the data gathered from the field. As a whole, the thesis endeavors to explore a broad framework for a humanistic and critical public finance theory by offering alternative perspectives beyond disciplinary boundaries.