Political rights linked to lower taxes
Comparing Political rights rating fh, gaps filled with Taxes less subsidies on products (current US$), per capita across 177 countries, 2025–2025.
- Rank correlation
- -0.66
- Holding size constant
- -0.58
- Countries compared
- 177
- Period
- 2025–2025
What might link these
The relationship between political rights and taxes less subsidies on products might be influenced by a country's level of economic freedom, which could be a driving factor for both indicators. A careful reader should be cautious about assuming causation and consider other factors such as government ideology or institutional stability. A likely confounder could be the level of corruption within a country.
Why this is not proof of anything
This is a correlation across countries, not an experiment. It cannot show that either indicator causes the other, and both may simply follow a third thing. This correlation could mislead by implying a direct causal link between political rights and taxation policies, when in fact other underlying factors may be at play.
The second figure above repeats the measurement with national population and income held constant. It is the more conservative number: a relationship that largely disappears there was mostly telling you that larger, richer countries have more of most things.
How this was measured
Both indicators were ranked across every country reporting each, and the two rankings compared — ranks rather than raw values, because a handful of very large countries can otherwise manufacture a relationship on their own. The calculation is arithmetic over figures already published on this site; the commentary above is drafted from the two indicator names and the resulting coefficients.