The Myth of Legitimacy Decline

Abstract

This chapter comprises an empirical evaluation of trends in political support within established democracies, to evaluate whether there is indeed a trend toward declining political support in established democracies. Using a variety of comparative data sets, i.e. the World Values Surveys, European Values Surveys, the European Election Studies, and the Eurobarometer surveys, this chapter reevaluates the empirical evidence for declining legitimacy, comparing trends in political support in sixteen established democracies from the mid-1970s to 2015. No consistent evidence is found for declining political support after the mid-1970s. Rather than a clear-cut long-term decline in political support that is apparent across established democracies, there is large variation between countries both in levels and trends of support. These findings call for a critical reappraisal of existing theories of legitimacy decline: how valid are such theories if the predicted outcome, i.e. secular decline of political support, does not occur?

When You Win, Nothing Hurts: The Durability of Electoral Salience on Individuals’ Satisfaction with Democracy

“…Elections continue to hold our attention as intuitive sources of satisfaction with democracy. As the central act of a democratic citizen, voting is widely considered a source of citizen’s satisfaction with democratic performance and thus crucial to long-term legitimacy in Europe (Van Ham et al, 2017). And while a number of theories have been offered as to why voting for an electorally victorious party may shape individual voters’ assessments of governance quality, we would benefit from knowing more about the seemingly more complex nature of this relationship.…”

What Satisfaction with Democracy? A Global Analysis of “Satisfaction with Democracy” Measures

“…Our primary contribution is to a long-standing methodological literature on the SWD measure (Ariely 2015; Ariely and Davidov 2011; Canache, Mondak, and Seligson 2001; Ferrin and Kriesi 2016; Lagos 2003; Linde and Ekman 2003; Quaranta 2018; Schedler and Sarsfield 2007; van Ham et al 2017). This previous literature has implicitly tended to focus on whether the given measure(s) adequately capture the concept of interest ( content validation; for example, Canache, Mondak, and Seligson 2001; Linde and Ekman 2003).…”

AI Suffrage: A four-country survey on the acceptance of an automated voting system

“…In line with the framework [44], the survey measures political support at three levels: regime principles, regime performance, and regime institutions. At the level of regime principle, the survey asks respondents whether they support governance by experts and whether voting is important to them.…”

“…Finally, the survey asks respondents about their own political efficacy [45]. Strictly speaking, the framework put forth by van Ham and Thomassen [44] does not mention self-reported political efficacy. However, from a conceptual point of view, including it aligns with the framework's overall goal which seeks to assess individuals' political attitudes towards regimes.…”