The Structure of Europeans’ Views of Democracy

Kriesi, Hanspeter; Saris, Willem E.; Moncagatta, Paolo

doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198766902.003.0004

Cited by 41 publications

(29 citation statements)

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“…Stemming on normative models of liberal, social, and direct democracy, they combine different conventionally used items to assess "the models of democracy the citizens have in mind" (Ferrín and Kriesi 2016, p. 19). Four types of democrats with different predominance across countries are identified, thus showing that people place different demands on 'democracy' (Kriesi, Saris, and Moncagatta 2016). In essence, however, there seems to be a common stem in form of a shared basic model of liberal democracy that citizens have in mind when thinking about democracy.…”

Section: Empirical Perspectives On Democracy and Norms Of Citizenshipmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…But for some people, this core model comes with 'add-ons', i.e., further requirements they attach to the concept of democracy and what it stands for(Ferrin and Kriesi 2014;Kriesi, Saris, and Moncagatta 2016). One of the four categories identified is an 'uncommitted democrat', which does not regard any of the offered answer alternatives for necessary requirements of democracy as important.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Understandings of Democracy: New Norms and Participation in Changing Democracies

Zorell¹,

Deth²

2020

Preprint

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The understanding of what democracy means has never been the same for all people and nations. However, contemporary developments suggest a fundamental shift. Preferences for a- and anti-democratic political parties and authoritarian(-like) relationships between politics and civil society are gaining support. Remarkably, these developments originate and thrive in the midst of exactly those democratic structures rejected. We therefore ask if there is a new understanding of democracy, and we empirically identify a discernible category of people who support illiberal understandings of democracy. These citizens with disparaging views of democracy reject democratic processes and actors, and weakly support common norms of citizenship. Yet, they are active in politics. Because we find that it is actual participation which stimulates the understandings of democracy, our results suggest that instead of attempting to exclude citizens with illiberal understandings of democracy from political arenas, meeting them there can offer the opportunity to nurture more liberal democratic orientations.

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Section: Empirical Perspectives On Democracy and Norms Of Citizenshipmentioning

confidence: 98%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Understandings of Democracy: New Norms and Participation in Changing Democracies

Zorell¹,

Deth²

2020

Preprint

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“…Most studies of PBS argue that in the presence of horizontal constraint, attitudes tapping a common domain and located at the same level of abstraction should be strongly correlated. However, in the case of DBS, I draw on the logic of a hierarchical structuration of the model of liberal democracy proposed by Kriesi et al (2016) to argue that correlation should not be the determinant of horizontal constraint. Constraint will be determined by the fact that democratic aspirations for principles of democracy pertaining to the liberal model of democracy are hierarchically structured in a coherent way.…”

Section: Theorymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Principles like the rule of law or free elections are the ones to which respondents attribute a higher importance, and these are, at the same time, the principles that are considered essential in most normative models of democracy. Moreover, there is a very similar hierarchical structuration of democratic aspirations about these liberal democratic principles across the 29 countries included in the sample (see Kriesi et al, 2016). A deductive alternative to measure horizontal constraint that follows a similar logic would be to assess how many times a respondent considers that any liberal principle is more important than the two essential liberal democracy principles (free elections and the rule of law).…”

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confidence: 99%

Democracy belief systems in Europe: cognitive availability and attitudinal constraint

Hernández

2019

Eur. Pol. Sci. Rev.

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There is a growing interest in analyzing what citizens think about democracy. However, gauging citizens’ opinions about a complex concept such as democracy might be hindered by the apparent low levels of political sophistication of mass publics. This paper contributes to the emerging literature on citizens’ views and evaluations of democracy by analyzing to what extent ordinary citizens are capable of developing structured opinions about democracy and its constitutive principles. For this purpose, the paper adapts Converse’s notion of political belief systems to analyze the articulation of individuals’ democracy belief systems (DBS). The first goal of this paper is to conceptualize and operationalize the main components of individuals’ DBS: cognitive availability, horizontal constraint, and vertical constraint. Drawing on data from the sixth round of the European Social Survey, the second goal is to describe the articulation of DBS in Europe. The third and final aim of this paper is to trace the most relevant individual- and country-level correlates of the articulation of the three components of DBS. In line with recent findings about political belief systems in other policy domains, the results indicate that most Europeans have coherently structured attitudes about democracy. However, even if the results imply that Europeans have a relatively articulated DBS, the empirical analysis also reveals some individual- and country-level variation in the articulation of specific components of DBS.

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“…According to Kriesi et al. () and Hernández (), elements such as social or direct democracy serve as additional components ‘on top’ of liberal democracy for many citizens, and their support varies strongly within as well as between countries. As Ceka and Magelhães (: 110) argue, a complete dominance of a strictly liberal democratic understanding of democracy does not seem to be occurring.…”

Section: Explaining Citizens’ Expectations Of Democracymentioning

confidence: 99%

The Making of Democratic Citizens: How Regime‐Specific Socialization Shapes Europeans’ Expectations of Democracy

Heyne

2018

Swiss Political Sci Review

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When analysing support for democracy, researchers tend to assume that 'democracy' is a concept that travels across countries. This paper argues that democracy is not the same thing for every citizen, because collective and individual socialization experiences strongly shape the criteria citizens expect a democracy to fulfil. Based on the literature on varieties of democracy, I suppose that individual expectations of democracy are influenced by regime-specific socialization, and depend on the democratic history, authoritarian legacies, and the prevalent democratic model. Due to socialization and democratic learning, individuals acquire democratic preferences and value those dimensions more which they experience in their own democracy. Using data from the European Social Survey (ESS) and the Democracy Barometer, I test how the national democratic context in 26 European democracies influences these individual democratic ideals. I find evidence for both socialization and participation effects of the democratic context on citizens' democratic expectations.

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The Structure of Europeans’ Views of Democracy

Cited by 41 publications

References 0 publications

Understandings of Democracy: New Norms and Participation in Changing Democracies

Understandings of Democracy: New Norms and Participation in Changing Democracies

Democracy belief systems in Europe: cognitive availability and attitudinal constraint

The Making of Democratic Citizens: How Regime‐Specific Socialization Shapes Europeans’ Expectations of Democracy

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