Contextualizing the Economic Basis of Political Support: Government Economic Engagement, Economic Perceptions, and Democratic Satisfaction

Abstract

Research has shown that citizens’ economic perceptions heavily influence their political support, both support for the incumbent government and support for the political system. Yet, inadequate attention has been paid to how the economic roles of the government shape the economic basis of political support. We argue that the extent to which the government is engaged in the economy determines how people attribute economic success or failure to the government and thus moderates the effect of economic perceptions. Focusing on one widely researched measurement of political support in a democratic setting, democratic satisfaction, we analyze the moderating effect of government economic engagement on the effect of economic perceptions among eighteen Latin American democracies. A consistent finding yielded in our study is that with a higher level of economic engagement of the government, there is a stronger association between citizens’ perceptions of economic conditions and their satisfaction with democracy.