Are dissatisfied democrats critical? Reevaluating the concept of the critical citizen

Abstract

Several studies have used the terms “critical citizen” and “dissatisfied democrat” interchangeably, assuming that both address the same citizen profile. However, recent studies conducted in new democracies have questioned this assumption, arguing that those who are dissatisfied are not always critical. This article investigates this question based on a comparison of the United States and Brazil. Beginning with the classification of two types of citizens, “dissatisfied democrats” and “critical democrats”, we appraise whether dissatisfied democrats are critical. Then, we test which of these two types of citizens is more engaged and has attitudes that are more democratic. The results show that dissatisfied democrats are not necessarily critical and that critical democrats are more engaged in politics and more committed to democracy than non-critical democrats.

Political Culture and the Crisis of Democracy. An Analysis of Citizenship Motivations to Justify a Coup D’état in Argentina

“…Only three years later, Chile is going through of extreme social conflict, while -for the first time in 15 years-a rightist conservative party has been elected in Uruguay. However, some data warns about the progressive loss of democracies' legitimacy, documenting an increasing gap between general democracy support and satisfaction with its performance, even in developed democracies (Dahlberg et al, 2015;Fuks et al, 2017). In Argentina, democracy explicit support has dropped from 70% in 2016 to 58% in 2018, being the lowest since the 2001 economic and political crisis (Corporación Latinobarómetro, 2016.…”