Abstract:
Bellicose theories of state-building suggest that wars enable the emergence of strong states via the mechanism of increased war-time fiscal capacities. We explore the hitherto littleanalysed micro-level foundations of this claim. Does the experience of war increase public support for higher taxation? Furthermore, is this support limited to only defensive purposes, or does it extend to other war-related but forward-looking goals like post-war reconstruction and cohesion-building? We implement a survey experiment during the ongoing war in Ukraine to address the above questions. We find that war changes citizen support for taxation at the intensive but not the extensive margin: war-related primes do not affect the proportion of respondents willing to pay more tax. However, among those ready to do so, defence- and cohesion-related purposes increase the amount and duration of tax hikes considered acceptable. Our findings complement conventional elite-centric models of war-related state-building and ongoing debates about Ukraine's post-war governance.