Americans view taxes as either a business transaction that pays for services received from the government, or on the Right they are viewed as theft and extortion.

Either way it’s firmly within a capitalist framework. That’s why everyone uses a business paradigm to talk about the role of government, about how it should be run like a business and politicians should act like CEOs.

I imagine every nation has its own cultural paradigm for how they view government. It’s because Government (with a big “G”) is a fundamental thing that structures human lives. Whether it’s the biggest and strongest caveman telling the other cavemen what to do, or it’s democracy, or socialism, or communism, or fascism they all play the same role: regulation of human behavior. We can’t survive without it. It is fundamental to the defense of the group, to its internal cohesion, and to its production of things that support the group: food, shelter, clothing, etc.

Government is one of the basic human structures, like Religion and War. It’s far more basic than current fads like socialism or capitalism.