Satisfied? Institutional Determinants of Citizen Evaluations of Democracy

Abstract

Based on theories about party and electoral systems provided by Downs (1957), Anderson and Guillory (1997), and Duverger (1984), we examine the relationship between citizen satisfaction with democracy and the institutional context in which democratic participation takes place. Using a multi-level design that controls for both institutional-level and individual-level differences, we find that as the number of political parties increases. citizen satisfaction with democracy first decreases and then increases. This result holdr regardless of whether or not one supported the ruling government in the previous election, undermining previous research that contendr that "winner" or "loser" status l e d to diverging evaluations of democratic structures, even when controlling for economic evaluations. Aallitionally, wefind that satisfaction with democracy is signijcantly lower in large district proportional representation (PR) systems relative to singlemember district systems and when the dijference between votes and legislative seat-shares is high. This finding suggests that we ought to reconsider the theoretical interaction between representativeness and efective governance as well as the democratic process versus the outcomes of elections.

Valence and satisfaction with democracy: A cross‐national analysis of nineWesternEuropean democracies

“…Berggren et al. (: 88) have extended Anderson and Guillory's findings by noting that different measures of institutional context (e.g., electoral district size, degree of unicameralism, electoral system disproportionality) affect the attitudes of winners and losers differentially (see also Bernauer & Vatter ; Singh ).…”

“…Earlier studies have identified several factors that influence satisfaction with democracy, including political culture (Almond & Verba ; Inglehart ; Norris ), and more recent studies single out institutional arrangements as determinants of satisfaction with democracy (e.g., Karp & Bowler ; Berggren et al. ; Matsubayashi ; Bernauer & Vatter ).…”

Finding Out the Hard Way: Uncovering the Structural Foundations of Political Dissatisfaction in Italy, 1973–2013

“…However, the evidence is mixed and neither of the views seem better suited to promoting democratic satisfaction. While proportional rules and multi-party systems are generally associated with higher levels of satisfaction with democracy (Anderson and Guillory 1997;Torcal and Magalhães 2010), when fragmentation is too high satisfaction is lowered (Berggren et al 2004;Weil 1989). In other words, when there are too many parties gaining representation in parliament, it is difficult to aggregate their interests into stable majority coalitions able to take decisions.…”

Democracy and Islam in the Arab World: Lessons from Algeria

“…As noted by Heper (1991;also Stephens 1989;Power and Gasiorowski 1997;Alexander 2001;Przeworski 1992;Anderson and Guillory 1997;Cheibub and Limongi 2002;Berggren 2004), material wealth, democratic attitudes and an interdependent relationship between social groups will be of little use in terms of democratization unless institutions evolve in such a way that they can relay political choices and demands to the legislatures and bureaucracies.…”