Are Conservatives Really Lower Taxes

Do conservatives really lower taxes? An analysis on the impact of conservative rule on rates of taxation.
“There are only to sure things in life, death and taxes”, the old adage clearly illustrates one of the realities of modern life. It is impossible to escape taxation. Given this basic principle there can be huge differences in the rates of taxation between different countries and at different times. In this essay I will consider the impact that conservative parties, traditionally associated with lower taxes, have on taxation across seventeen countries. The data for this study has been provided by Professor John Zaller of UCLA. His sources have been used to produce a scatterplot that charts Total Tax Rates with the Percent of Cabinet Seats …show more content…
This is a significant though not overwhelming correlation. Our slope is -0.15; this means that for every 1 percent increase in conservative cabinet seats, we see a 0.15 percent decrease in the total tax rate. In general an increase in conservative cabinet seats means lower taxes, however the impact is not overwhelming, and as the data shows many countries may buck this trend because of other reasons. Sweden the model social democracy has only had eleven percent of her cabinet seats held by conservatives. This in part reflects why it has such high taxes at around 52 percent. However scarce rule by conservatives is not sufficient to explain why Sweden has such a high tax rate, otherwise taxes would stand at 41 percent. Other conditions such as an especially socially conscious population must account for the extra 11 percent in the total tax rate. Likewise if conservative control of the cabinet were the only significant variable, taxes in the US should average 34.7 percent. Instead the US total tax rate is lower at around 27.4 percent. A cultural aversion to taxation and rampant loopholes in the tax code, likely account for the lower overall tax rate. Our probability value of 3.4 percent shows that the relationship between x and y is too strong to be ignored, however the number shows that many other factors are involved in deciding what the total tax rate will be. I believe that the relationship between total tax rates and conservative party control of cabinet seats, is statically significant; The relationship is real and important, however conservative rule is only one of many factors that determine taxation. Also important are national debt, military spending, social consciousness, size and wealth. It is very likely that most conservatives would like to keep taxes as low as possible, this