Abstract
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>The United States features a unique form of fiscal federalism defined by high state tax autonomy and low intergovernmental tax coordination. This book has two goals: to trace and explain the evolution of state tax systems (in particular, the politics behind state taxation choices) over the past ninety years, and to examine the national debate over intergovernmental tax policy that emerged in response. The study moves from the 1930s to the present day, focusing on key moments (the 1930s, 1960s, 1980s, and 2010s) in which major changes in state-level tax policy occurred alongside major debate (and, occasionally, action) on intergovernmental fiscal relations in the nation’s capital. Moving back and forth between developments in statehouses and in Washington, D.C., the book sheds light on the interplay between activity at both levels of government. Along the way, it demonstrates how key features of state-level taxation in the United States have been shaped as much by national political forces as by internal state politics. It also demonstrates why and how the United States, at a series of critical junctures, established a dramatically different form of fiscal federalism from that which exists in the world’s other federal democracies.</jats:p>