The Impact of Political Conviction on the Relation Between Winning or Losing and Political Dissatisfaction

Ali Abdelzadeh

doi:10.1177/2158244014535414

Abstract

Election outcomes, or more specifically belonging to a political minority or majority, have a significant impact on citizens’ attitudes toward the political system and political involvement. This study aims to broaden our understanding in these regards by taking into account the effects of people’s political convictions on the relation between belonging to a political minority or majority and their dissatisfaction with the performance of the political system. Using a person-oriented approach, four groups of citizens were identified on the basis of their attachment to political parties. The group of people who were not politically attached to any of the political parties were the most dissatisfied, whereas supporters of parties in government were the least dissatisfied. Moreover, supporters of opposition parties who had high levels of political conviction were more dissatisfied than supporters of opposition parties who had lower levels of political conviction. Overall, the findings of this study show that it is crucial to take into account the individual characteristics of citizens when studying the relations between election outcomes and political attitudes.

Highlights

In recent decades, election outcomes have received increased attention in research into variations in people’s attitudes toward the political system
In this article, we aim to contribute to research on election outcomes by examining the conditions under which attachment to political parties, a measure that is strongly associated with electoral outcome (Campbell, Converse, Miller, & Stokes, 1960; Holmberg, 1994), affects citizens’ satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the performance of the political system
The current study aims to make two main contributions to research concerned with the influence of election outcomes on citizens’ evaluations of the political system’s performance

Summary

Introduction

Election outcomes have received increased attention in research into variations in people’s attitudes toward the political system. A substantial amount of the literature (e.g., Anderson, Blais, Bowler, Donovan, & Listhaug, 2005; Bernauer & Vatter, 2012; Blais & Gélineau, 2007) shows that citizens who, in the previous election, voted for a winning party, that is, a party that made it into government, are more likely to display higher levels of satisfaction with the performance of the political system and of political trust. They are more likely to believe that the government is responsive to and interested in their needs. We aim to contribute to the SAGE Open debate about election losers and winners, and to an understanding of the determinants of system support

Objectives

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Conclusion