I love this assessment of Miguel Anxo Bastos:

Miguel Anxo Bastos argues that from the point of view of Liberty and tax collection, monarchies were better than democracies, since in monarchies the citizens perceived their election as illegitimate and the monarchy tried not to interfere too much in the affairs of the citizens and tried not to abuse the collection of taxes, in ancient monarchies never exceeded 10%.

The current democracies are perceived from the citizen's point of view as legitimate since the same citizen participates in his election, and due to this mental process the citizen tolerates tax rates of more than 50%.