Article2008

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

96 citations0/0 files storedJournal of Elections Public Opinion and Parties

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Electoral Systems and Political Participation Political Theory and Democracy Commonwealth, Australian Politics and Federalism

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 Anderson, Christopher J. and LoTempio, Andrew J. 2002. Winning, losing and political trust in America. British Journal of Political Science, 32: 335–351. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], Banducci & Karp 2003 Banducci, Susan A. and Karp, Jeffrey A. 2003. How elections change the way citizens view the political system: campaigns, media effects and electoral outcomes in comparative perspective. British Journal of Political Science, 33: 443–467. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) 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.

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References

1992The third wave: democratization in the late twentieth century 2000Democracy in America 1963The Civic Culture 1975A Re-assessment of the Concept of Political Support 1963The Civic Culture 2003Corruption, Political Allegiances, and Attitudes Toward Government in Contemporary Democracies 1997Political Institutions and Satisfaction with Democracy: A Cross-National Analysis of Consensus and Majoritarian Systems 2000Disaffected democracies: what's troubling the trilateral countries?

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2018Economic performance, quality of democracy and satisfaction with democracy 2017The costs of electoral fraud: establishing the link between electoral integrity, winning an election, and satisfaction with democracy 2011Winning and Competitiveness as Determinants of Political Support*2013Social Protection and Satisfaction with Democracy: A Multi-level Analysis 2013Nail-biters and no-contests: The effect of electoral margins on satisfaction with democracy in winners and losers

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