How Global Citizenries Think about Democracy: An Evaluation and Synthesis of Recent Public Opinion Research

Abstract

Since the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989, individual scholars and research institutes have conducted numerous public opinion surveys to monitor how global citizenries react to the process of democratization taking place in their own countries and elsewhere. This article reviews the various issues surrounding the divergent conceptions of democracy among political scientists and ordinary citizens, and synthesizes significant findings of the conceptual and empirical research based on these surveys. It also raises a set of new questions that future surveys should address to broaden and deepen our knowledge about citizen conceptions of democracy.

What drives citizens’ evaluation of democratic performance? The interaction of citizens’ democratic knowledge and institutional level of democracy

“…These preferences for democracy are shaped by the knowledge about fundamental principles, institutions and procedures associated with the concept of democracy that people acquire in the course of their political socialization. Accordingly, democratic knowledge refers to the cognitive dimension of attitudes towards democracy, which is synonymous with the understanding of democracy (Shin and Kim 2018). Citizens' assessment of democracy should therefore be considered in the light of their knowledge about democratic procedures.…”

A Clash of Civilizations? Muslims, Christians, and Preferences for Democracy

“…In this way, I avoid the problem of people merely expressing superficial support for democracy while actually having authoritarian political propensities (Chu et al. ; Schedler and Sarsfield ; Shin ). Second, the study is based on the latest and most comprehensive data with representative samples from many different parts of the world, implying that the empirical findings of the present study have great potential for generalizing about Muslims and Christians.…”

“…Using this measure to investigate Muslims’ and Christians’ preferences for democracy has distinctive qualities since it addresses some essential problems in measuring support for democracy, as identified by several studies (e.g., Bratton, Mattes, and Gyimah‐Boadi ; Carrión ; Chu et al. ; Schedler and Sarsfield ; Shin ). Most importantly, these studies document that a vast majority of people worldwide express overt support for democracy, but they do not necessarily reject authoritarianism .…”

“…Third, most existing studies rely on a weak operationalization of endorsement of democracy by measuring only overt and superficial support. This is problematic in light of the fact that many citizens merely express superficial support for democracy but actually have authoritarian propensities (e.g., Inglehart ; Schedler and Sarsfield ; Shin ). Consequently, genuine support for democracy has to be measured in a way that allows people to rank their preferences for democracy against the alternatives (Dalton ; Linz and Stepan ; Shin ).…”

Democracy, aid, and diffusion: A normative approach to the hybrid regime

“…Studies demonstrate widespread public support for democracy across varying social, cultural, and economic contexts, both as the preferred form of government and a priority development goal (Inglehart, 2003;H. Klingemann, 1999;Norris, 1999;Shin & Kim, 2018). Although some express frustration with its execution (H.-D. Klingemann, 2014;Shin & Kim, 2018), democracy remains "virtually the only political model with global appeal" (Inglehart, 2003, p. 52).…”