Levels Of Support For Democracy Research Articles

Perceived discrimination and support for democracy among immigrants

ABSTRACT Does perceived discrimination and exclusion promote or hinder support for democracy among immigrants? While many studies investigate the drivers of prejudice and discrimination toward immigrants, relatively less is known about the impact of discrimination on immigrants’ political attitudes. In this paper, we assess whether perceived discrimination is associated with higher levels of support for democracy among Muslim immigrants using the EURISLAM survey dataset, which includes data from immigrants from Muslim-majority countries residing in four European countries. We find that in particular, perceived discrimination toward the ethnic or religious in-group is associated with increased support for democracy. These results are robust to alternative control variables, model specification, matching procedures and coefficient stability analysis. Our findings make an important contribution to understanding the implications of discriminatory experiences for immigrants.

As políticas de memória sobre o passado autoritário e os impactos para a democracia na Argentina e no Brasil

Abstract In this article, we seek to understand how two countries that experienced, at similar times, authoritarian regimes and fluctuations in their economic performance ended up developing consistently different levels of support for democracy. Our argument is that the different processes of transition to democracy in the two countries produced different institutional arrangements, conditioning reparations and memory policies on authoritarian regimes, as well as dissimilar possibilities for political interference by the armed forces, influencing the contrasting levels of support for democracy. In order to do that, we analysed opinion polls and reconstructed the transition processes as well as the implementation and development of reparation and memory policies about authoritarian regimes. This paper seeks to contribute to the field of research in two ways. First, in terms of discussing the factors that can interfere with adherence to democracy. And secondly, by comparatively addressing the processes of transition to democracy and the long-term repercussions of these processes, such as the recent military influence in Brazilian politics.

Popular political attitudes in Samoa: Findings of the Pacific Attitudes Survey

AbstractPopular political attitudes surveys have been conducted globally for several decades, but the Pacific region remains an exception. This paper presents the findings of the first Pacific Attitudes Survey (PAS), conducted in Samoa from December 2020‐January 2021. Drawing on a nationally representative sample of Samoans of voting‐age (n = 1319) the PAS gauges the attitudes of ordinary Samoans to their democracy, levels of popular trust in institutions, attitudes towards the role of government, and to women's participation in politics. Findings reveal high levels of support for democracy and trust in democratic institutions. At the same time, popular political attitudes highlight a distinct model of Samoan democracy, in which respect for modern democratic norms is tempered and entwined with deeper traditions of Samoan community and identity.

The Choice between Democracy and Authoritarian Government in the Minds of Citizens of Post-Communist Countries: Factors and Dynamics

This paper is dedicated to studying the value of democracy and authoritarian government in the political consciousness of citizens of post-communist countries three decades after the democratic transition. The author primarily examines the dynamics of said value and the complex ways in which a country’s socio-demographic characteristics, political regime type and economic development can impact their acceptance of democratic values. The author also analyzes such a thesis as “crisis of democracy”, particularly in post-communist regimes, what sort of causes, factors lie at the bottom this crisis and how potential deconsolidation can affect political culture. The study is built on comparative data from surveys by project “Life in Transition Survey”, which was conducted in 28 post-communist countries in 2006, 2010 and 2016. In the beginning the author’s reasoning is rooted in modernization theory and transitology — the most prevalent approaches in the study of post-communist regimes — with them being examined in critical light, and used as a foundation to put forward three key theses on the effect of individual and national factors on the value of democracy. The study shows that levels of support for democracy can vary significantly from country to country. Regardless, it is in higher demand in the vast majority of post-communist societies compared to the authoritarian alternative and the absentee position. However, while continuing to be the most sought after, democracy’s value rating is deteriorating. With the help of multi-level ordinal regression analysis, the author was able to identify certain stable patterns: first of all, the more social resources people possess — the more inclined they are to maintain the value of democracy, secondly, the less economically developed a country — the higher the value of democracy among its citizens, thirdly, regime type does influence the value of democracy, but the effects of such influence vary from year to year. Nevertheless, these results in part disprove the logic of modernization theory and transitology. The author offers his own original explanations and interpretations of the results.

Indigenous people, recognition, and democracy in Latin America

ABSTRACT Multicultural citizenship norms have been introduced in most Latin American countries. Some fear that this process may destabilize and undermine democratic institutions, while others believe that it contributes to strengthening democracy and restoring its legitimacy, especially among indigenous people. Multilevel regression analyses of the Latinobarómetro surveys from 2007 to 2017 reveal that indigenous people tend to express levels of support for democracy that are similar to the rest of society, suggesting that they do not represent a particular threat to the stability and legitimacy of the political system. On the other hand, constitutional recognition of the rights of indigenous peoples does increase citizens’ democratic support. However, indigenous people are no more supportive of democracy than non-indigenous people as constitutional multiculturalism gains prominence. A result that is explained – in part – by the fact that multicultural recognition has been essentially symbolic with little tangible improvements in the living conditions of indigenous people.

Can the Design of Electoral Institutions Improve Perceptions of Democracy in Fragile States? Evidence from Afghanistan

AbstractLiberal peace-building efforts in fragile states often suffer from low levels of public support for democracy. This article explores whether changes in the design of electoral institutions improves perceptions of democracy in states seeking to transition from conflict to a democratic order. We do so by embedding a vignette experiment in a nationally representative survey of households in Afghanistan. Our experiment varies the method of selecting members to the national legislature, which allows us to examine how changes to status quo electoral institutions influence perceptions of democracy. We find that support for democracy depends on the choice of electoral institutions, particularly among those respondents who express sympathy for the Taliban insurgency. These results show how electoral system design improves citizen support for democracy and helps explain why democracy struggles to live up to its promise in these challenging contexts.

Latin America: Presidential Power and the Opposition in the Twenty-first Century

At the end of 2017 Latin America has entered the electoral super cycle, which runs until the end of 2019. In the region will take place the elections of all levels: presidential, legislative, local, as well as referendums. The countries covered by the electoral race, provide 80 per cent of regional GDP, ballot will involve about 2/3 of the voters in the region. Fourteen Heads of State will be elected in the countries with a presidential form of Government. Elections are held in an atmosphere of political instability, discredit of the power structures, the degradation of the ruling elites, fragmentation of party systems, volatility of the preferences of the electorate. In the region, there are strong antielite moods, a slowdown of democratic processes, and the low level of support for democracy. This article analyzes the reasons for this situation. Considerable attention is paid to the characterization of the political systems prevailing in the countries of the region and focuses on the evolution of the institute of Presidency in the 21st century, the causes of the emergence of a new leadership and the formation of regimes of personified authorities. The author is of the opinion that the imbalances of presidential systems laid down in the regulatory and legislative framework, contribute to the consolidation of different models of ideological personification colors and offer opportunities for concentrating power in the hands of the head of State. Hyper power of the Presidents and the weakening of the control functions of parliaments contributed to the flourishing of corruption that has taken epidemic proportions in recent years and among the highest echelons of almost all countries. Corruption scandals in turn cause presidential resignations and impeachments, lead to institutional instability. The fight against corruption becomes the main leitmotif of election campaigns. The article presents the results of the election campaigns of 2015-2017, traces the dependence of electoral preferences of the population of the region from the situation in the economy and the social conditions, and underlines the special role of the new middle class in the political life. It is argued that Latin America is on the threshold of the emblematic changes but to predict election results and the nature of future change is not possible.

Eroding support for democracy in Azerbaijan? Context and pitfalls in survey research

ABSTRACTWhat determines the level of support for democracy in post-Soviet hybrid regimes? How stable is popular support for democracy, and what can explain its volatility? This article explores these questions using evidence from the European Bank of Research and Development's Life in Transition survey in Azerbaijan, where from 2010 to 2016 support for democracy suddenly fell from 60% to 28% – the lowest score in the transition region. We juxtapose social background factors with economic and political variables, and use regression analysis and contextual data. Our main argument is that citizens’ support for democracy in Azerbaijan is highly volatile and could be sensitive to major changes in socio-political conditions, notably, retaliation against dissent (from mid-2012 on) and economic recession set in by the oil price downfall (2015). The instability of democracy support presents specific challenges in measuring political attitudes in hybrid regime contexts. Finally, reliability of survey data on regime-related attitudes obtained by public polling in societies with limited freedoms may be compromised due to survey design and execution issues. Fear and self-censorship prevalent among respondents also need to be addressed.

The evolution of support for democratic regime principles and its alternatives

The aim of this paper is to examine the claim that “most people in almost every country worldwide prefer democracy over other types of regimes” against new data, so as to add to the global map of popular perceptions about their support for various regime types. We describe measured changes in levels of public support in 49 countries over four waves of the World Values Survey on three levels: country specific, regional–continental, and global. We found that levels of support for democracy are high and stable across most parts of the world; however, support for various alternate (authoritarian) regime types is steadily increasing and could threaten the extent to which democratic values are entrenched, especially in younger democracies. We conclude with an overview of some of the factors that could plausibly shape such perceptions at the level of the general citizenry.

Islamists and Women’s Rights: Lessons from Turkey

The emergence and evolution of Islamism in Turkey, a country with a history of (secular) democratic practices that goes back to 1950, has been the subject of numerous scholarly works. Several studies ascribe the transformation experienced by Islamists in Turkey to their interaction with democratic institutions. These studies argue that Islamists in Turkey have become more supportive of democracy over time. Despite a significant level of support for democracy, which is viewed largely as the holding of free and fair elections, this study shows that the same cannot be said of Islamists’ attitudes toward gender equality. An analysis of the data collected by the World Values Survey (WVS) for Turkey over the last decade reveals that supporters of Islamist political parties manifest significantly more negative attitudes toward women when compared to attitudes of those who support other political parties.

Government effectiveness and support for democracy

AbstractDiffuse support for democracy, as captured in mass surveys, tends to be treated as impervious to regime performance. Such a finding is often presented as confirmation of the basic distinction between ‘diffuse’ and ‘specific’ support as proposed by David Easton. This study argues that this line of argument stems from an incomplete reading of important aspects of Easton's theorisation about the relationship between system outputs and diffuse support. Using multilevel models, evidence from more than 100 surveys in close to 80 countries, and different measures of democratic support, it is shown that government effectiveness is the strongest macro‐level predictor of such support. In democratic regimes, government effectiveness, understood as the quality of policy‐making formulation and implementation, is linked to higher levels of support for democracy. Furthermore, in non‐democracies, effectiveness and support for democracy are, under some model specifications, negatively related.

Arabs Want Democracy, but What Kind?

In recent times, Arabs have shown the world that they are ready for additional democratic reforms. We must nevertheless question what democracy means to them. How do they think about the role of religious leaders in democracy? Does democracy imply extending the rights of women? How do Arabs see the connection between democracy and a prosperous economy? Answers to these and similar questions are important in order to interpret the high levels of support for democracy that are being observed in the Arab world, as well as the possible outcomes of the Arab spring. It is also important to examine whether Arabs have a common understanding of democracy or whether they disagree on the form that democracy should take. Wide variations in the meaning of democracy could retard the process of democratization. In this article, public opinion data from Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, and Morocco are used to develop a detailed image of what democracy means to Arabs.

Is democracy the only game in town? Tension between immigrants' democratic desires and authoritarian imprints

This article borrows from the literature on transitional democracies to examine levels of support for democracy and non-democratic alternatives among immigrants travelling from partly and non-democratic countries to Canada. It evaluates how immigrants who grew up under authoritarian rule come to adapt to democracy. The findings indicate that immigrants from partly and non-democratic countries experience tensions in their adaptation to democracy, expressing strong democratic desires but also manifesting what could be interpreted as lasting imprints of their socialization under authoritarian rule. Immigrants from partly and non-democratic countries exhibit strong support for democracy (they almost all believe it is a good form of government, the best one, and understand democracy in broadly similar terms as the rest of the population). Yet, if democracy is the main game in town for the immigrants, it is not the only one; immigrants from partly and non-democratic countries are significantly more likely than people socialized in a democratic political system to support other forms of governments that are non-democratic. The article thus argues for the lasting impact of authoritarianism on people's democratic outlooks despite the presence of strong democratic desires.

The Effect of Elections on Public Opinion Toward Democracy

Given the importance of developing a democratic culture for the long-term survival of democracy, it is crucial to understand whether and how public support for democracy changes over time in response to different events, particularly those that may contribute to democratization. Elections are a key institution associated with democracy; but elections are also found in most nondemocratic regimes, raising questions about whether electoral experiences affect the way that ordinary citizens think about democracy. The present article uses original survey data collected in Algeria in 2002, 2004, and 2006 to investigate this question. It finds that individuals who favor platforms, ideological orientations, or candidates who are excluded from participation in an election and/or believe that an election has not been free and fair have lower levels of support for democracy after the election than other members of society.

The Meanings of Democracy: The Shadow of Confucianism

Abstract: Scholars have been puzzled by the high level of support for democracy, as well as the high level of support for the authoritarian regime, in China, as revealed in numerous surveys. In this paper, Shi and Lu argue that people in different societies may understand democracy in distinct ways. Confucian culture defines democracy in terms of Minben , which is different from the procedural understanding of democracy following the liberal tradition. These two definitions generate different expectations for the government, provide varying standards for assessing political legitimacy, and define distinct functions of participation. Their findings suggest that meaningful comparative studies of support for democracy require scholars to be sensitive to culturally embedded understandings of democracy in different societies.

¿Es El Crecimiento Económico Suficiente Para Apoyar La Democracia? Lecciones Del Caso Chileno

This article analyzes the support for democracy in Chile from an economic, institutional and political perspective. It uses data from Latinobarometro for the period 1996-2007 and a statistical method of estimation, “ordered logit,” in order to answer the question of why support for Chilean democracy is not connected with economic growth. The analysis generates three key results of interest. First, regardless of the fact that GDP per capita does not have any effect on the level of support for democracy, it does affect individuals’ perceptions of economic performance, since the variable “economic situation” is one of the most explanatory variable of the model. Second, the analysis demonstrates the importance of the degree of confidence in the Congress at the moment that perceptions of democracy are evaluated. Third, “political ideology” is the most useful variable in explaining support for democracy, a fact which suggests that the adherents of the right wing do not support the democratic system. This is the most reliable reason for the moderate level of support for democracy in Chile.

Explaining mass support for democracy in Hong Kong

This article aims to identify the main causal factors that underlie the overall levels of mass support for democracy in Hong Kong in the light of two approaches of comparative politics. Using a common questionnaire in 2003, 2005, and 2008, analyses of their results reveal a more or less stable level of support by Hongkongers for democracy. Viewed from the perspective of a mass values approach, post-materialism and respect for authority are found to be consistently statistically significant factors in explaining the support across the three years. The future prospects for Hong Kong will thus in part rest on the future trends of post-materialism and respect for authority. Viewed from the perspective of a perceived performance approach, both perceived economic and political performance are found to have consistently exerted a causal effect on mass support for democracy. Thus, any attempt to suppress the popular demand for democracy by offering only economic sweeteners will not, it is argued, be enough. Also, the democrats’ ability to shape the public's perception of the performance of democracy is pivotal to raising mass support. However, it is shown here that the lack of relatively strong support among younger and more educated people in Hong Kong casts a pall over the prospects for Hong Kong's democratic development. Finally, the theoretical implications of the theory of post-materialism and the Asian values debate are discussed.

Identifying sources of democratic legitimacy: A multilevel analysis

Democracy enjoys a significant base of popular support in the 41 country samples covered by CSES Module II. While higher levels of support for democracy seem to be a defining feature of the established democracy, the emerging democracies including post-communist regimes also enjoy a solid base of pro-democracy sentiment. The endurance of many emerging democracies is not under any immediate danger because popular belief in the superiority of democracy is not susceptible to the ups-and-downs of government performance or short-term economic fluctuation. Our analysis also demonstrates that all three theoretical perspectives, modernization/postmodernization, institution, and rationality, are indispensable for a comprehensive understanding of the sources of democratic legitimacy for both established and emerging democracies. However, most of the theoretical predictions based on a narrow conception of ‘utility-maximization’ turn out to be less relevant. Instead, our analysis shows that performance-based legitimacy is a function of a more diffuse basket of political goods including freedom, accountability and representativeness.

Democratic Values Among Chinese People

This study confronts the results of the World Values Survey conducted in China in June 2001 with three theories on the origins of democratic values. It shows that Chinese people have rather high democratic aspirations. The Chinese middle class offers the highest level of support for democracy. The negative relation between age and democratic-value orientations confirms the generation-replacement theory. This study also shows that education plays a critical role in support of democracy.

Islam and Democracy

Very few studies have attempted to empirically examine the relationship between Islam and democracy at the level of the individual. Using cross-sectional ordinary least squares regression, the author compares the sources and patterns of democratic supportamong Muslim and Christian respondents in eight countries undergoing varying degrees of democratization or attempting to consolidate democratic regimes. The results indicate that levels of support for democracy as an ideal are generally higher among Muslim respondents than Eastern Orthodox respondents in the countries included in the study. Furthermore, the study suggests that Muslims may more closely approximate the ideal envisioned by scholars who view civic engagement and political trust as essential to democracy. At the same time, however, the model reveals that in the countries included in the study, religion may play only a minor role in individuals’ evaluations of democracy as an ideal concept.