Tax culture in the context of development and democratic freedoms

Abstract

This study, focusing on understanding the relationship between democracy and economic development over the concept of taxation, aims to analyze the effects of democratic freedoms on a set of economic variables such as economic development, corruption, equity of taxation and informal economic activities. From this point of view, first the concept of economic development has been defined. Then, we have tried to reveal how the relationship between tax and accountability, which restores parliamentary democracy in the West, affects the interaction between democracy and economic development. Analyses carried out taking into account the indicators such as taxation, shadow economy and corruption, showed that these variables are closely related with the concept of democracy and freedoms achieved by economic development. It was revealed that democratic freedoms were strong in countries with high level of economic development, but relatively weak in countries with low level of economic development.