ABSTRACT
In this chapter the author focuses explicitly on the political vision of Louis-Sebastien Mercier in the representative and performative senses of the term. As the author will show, is very much the case in the chapter on the future form of government. The author will pursue this self-assured persistence of Mercier's novel into the perhaps surprising realm of taxation. By revisiting the topic of taxation from a cultural historical perspective, The author talks about ideology and utopianism in Mercier. The argument underlying Mercier's chapter on taxation is that by simplifying the administrative measures of tax collection, state expenditures would decrease, and a 2% mandatory tax should be sufficient, especially if the increased fiscal liberty could simultaneously inspire the virtuous citizens to voluntarily offer more funds. This kind of literary politics has important consequences too for the relationship between literature and French revolutionary human rights.
