PhD Defence Posthumus alumnus Yannis Skalli-Housseini

On 11 March 2026, Posthumus alumna Yannis Skalli-Housseini will defend the thesis ‘In the Name of Distributive Justice: Debating Fiscal Reform in 18th-Century Flanders’ at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. Supervisor is Professor Wouter Ryckbosch (Ghent University).

Yannis’ dissertation contributes to the recent historiographical re-evaluation of the rise of the fiscal state that aims to overhaul this dominant political-economic paradigm. For this purpose, inspired by the literature on inequality studies, it introduces the concept of a ‘fiscal inequality regime’. Addressing the factor of historical change, the dissertation begins by investigating the negotiations between the Flemish rural administrations of Aalst and Veurne with the central state’s fiscal reform commission (the Jointe). In contrast to what the literature suggests, the role of subaltern administrations in these reforms was not merely one of ‘resistance’ and keeping the tax burden low: implementing their own ambitious policies led them to increase the tax burden, nullifying government efforts.

Yannis demonstrates how the connection between ideological and material factors within the concept of the ‘fiscal inequality regime’ allows for a better understanding of Early Modern tax debates. Specifically, the discourses and practices of fiscal contestation against the Castellany tax on cattle in Aalst during the 17th and 18th century are argued to have been essential in shaping the major peasant uprisings in Flanders’ revolutionary 1780s.

The N.W. Posthumus Institute wishes Yannis a successful defence!