Public finances as a social fabric: ideas for a new fiscal sociology

Public finances were the key campaign issue in the 2021 German federal election. The coronavirus pandemic brought the favorable financial conditions of the 2010s to an end, and the political parties responded with a range of different tax proposals, spending priorities, and positions on “black zero,” Germany’s longstanding commitment to a balanced budget, on which to fight the election. But politics is not the only area in which public finances are key to negotiating some of the major issues of our time.