Satisfaction with Democracy: The Impact of Winning and Losing in Westminster Systems

Abstract

Stable democracies must engender support for the political system among citizens. Satisfaction with democracy, as probed in election surveys, is often seen as the key measure of support. Seen as a measure of support for electoral outcomes, previous research (Anderson & LoTempio 2002, Banducci & Karp 2003) argues that electoral losers have lower levels of satisfaction than those who backed electoral winners. This paper explores satisfaction with democracy in Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom, three Westminster systems where winning or losing in local constituency contests might provide an independent impact on satisfaction. Using the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems dataset it demonstrates that while winning at the local level is not an independent predictor of satisfaction, ideological distance from the national winner can negatively affect satisfaction. The paper also contributes to debates about the type of support tapped by the satisfaction question. It demonstrates that the measure taps both diffuse and electoral support, but that the predictors of satisfaction point to the mediating role of the rewards doled out by political institutions on citizens’ evaluations of their performance.