scholarly journals Measuring satisfaction with democracy: how good are different scales across countries and languages?

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Carlos Poses ◽  
Melanie Revilla
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Measurement Errors ◽  
European Social Survey ◽  
Questionnaire Design ◽  
Point Scale ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
Measurement Quality ◽  
Satisfaction With Democracy ◽  
Language Groups ◽  
Survey Results

Abstract The Satisfaction With Democracy (SWD) indicator is very often used in social sciences’ research. However, while there is debate about which concept it measures, the discussion about the size of its measurement errors (how well it measures the underlying concept ‘satisfaction with the way democracy works’) is scarce. Nonetheless, measurement errors can affect the results and threaten comparisons across studies, countries and languages. Thus, in this paper, we estimated the measurement quality (complement of measurement errors) of the SWD indicator for 7 response scales across 38 country-language groups, using three multitrait-multimethod experiments from the European Social Survey. Results show that measurement errors explain from 16% (11-point scale) to 54% (4-point scale) of the variance in the observed responses. Additionally, we provide insights to improve questionnaire design and evaluate the indicator’s comparability across scales, countries and languages.

scholarly journals Is it All about the Economy? Government Fractionalization, Economic Performance and Satisfaction with Democracy across Europe, 2002−13

2015 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
pp. 100-130 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elina Kestilä-Kekkonen ◽  
Peter Söderlund
Keyword(s):  
Economic Performance ◽  
European Social Survey ◽  
Political Support ◽  
Power Sharing ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
Satisfaction With Democracy ◽  
Dominant Party ◽  
Coalition Governments ◽  
Government Power

While previous research has generally shown that economic performance is an important predictor of satisfaction with democracy, differences between political systems on the majoritarian-consensual dimension have not been as marked as expected. What has been neglected in previous studies is how the interaction between economic performance and type of power-sharing arrangement co-produce democratic satisfaction. This study uses multiple rounds of data from the European Social Survey between 2002 and 2013 involving 31 countries. The results show that short-term changes in economic performance and government fractionalization interactively increase or decrease levels of political support. The effect of economic performance on satisfaction with democracy becomes weaker the more fractionalized a government is. Satisfaction with how democracy works in a country remains relatively high in systems with fractionalized coalition governments when the economy is performing poorly. But when the economy performs extraordinarily well, satisfaction with democracy is even higher in countries with a dominant party in charge of government power.

scholarly journals The Day After the Bomb: Well-Being Effects of Terrorist Attacks in Europe

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emilio Colombo ◽  
Valentina Rotondi ◽  
Luca Stanca
Keyword(s):  
Terrorist Attack ◽  
Negative Relationship ◽  
Well Being ◽  
European Social Survey ◽  
Terrorist Attacks ◽  
Negative Attitudes ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
Satisfaction With Democracy ◽  
Muslim Immigrants ◽  
The Government

AbstractWe study the non-monetary costs of terrorist attacks in France, Belgium and Germany between 2010 and 2017. Using four waves of the European Social Survey, we find that individual well-being is significantly reduced in the aftermath of a terrorist attack. We explore possible mechanisms, finding that terrorist attacks are negatively correlated with generalized trust, institutional trust, satisfaction with democracy and satisfaction with the government. Terrorist attacks are also found to be positively correlated with negative attitudes towards migrants and perceived discrimination. Contrary to expectations, the negative relationship between terrorism and well-being is less strong for Muslim immigrants. We interpret this finding as an indication that immigrants benefit more than natives from the institutional reaction following terrorist attacks.

scholarly journals Methods for Classification of Text Data: Can the Potential of Quantitative Analysis Be Applied to Qualitative Research?

Inter ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 81-96
Author(s):  
Marina Aleksandrova
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
European Social Survey ◽  
Research Field ◽  
Item Nonresponse ◽  
Text Data ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
The Social ◽  
Textual Data ◽  
Analysis Of Results

Text mining has developed rapidly in recent years. In this article we compare classification methods that are suitable for solving problems of predicting item nonresponse. The author builds reasoning about how the analysis of textual data can be implemented in a wider research field based on this material. The author considers a number of metrics adapted for textual analysis in the social sciences: accuracy, precision, recall, F1-score, and gives examples that can help a sociologist figure out which of them is worth paying attention depending on the task at hand (classify text data with equal accuracy, or more fully describe one of the classes of interest). The article proposes an analysis of results obtained by analyzing texts based on the materials of the European Social Survey (ESS).

scholarly journals As time goes by, the same sentiments apply? Stability of voter satisfaction with democracy during the electoral cycle in 31 countries

2020 ◽  
pp. 135406882091246
Author(s):  
Miroslav Nemčok ◽  
Hanna Wass
Keyword(s):  
Political Development ◽  
Essential Element ◽  
European Social Survey ◽  
The Political ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
Satisfaction With Democracy ◽  
Electoral Cycle ◽  
Popular Consent ◽  
Limited Generalizability ◽  
Over Time

Popular consent is an essential element for success and stability of democracies. Research has repeatedly demonstrated that “electoral winners” (i.e. voters casting a ballot for government parties) are more satisfied with democracy than supporters of the opposition parties. However, little is known about the dynamics of satisfaction during the electoral cycle: Do winners become happier and losers even more discontent over time? We approach this question by utilizing an interview date in the European Social Survey (rounds 1–8) to position individuals within the different stages of electoral cycle. The results based on 199,207 responses from 199 surveys in 31 countries suggest that satisfaction with democracy stays relatively stable during the electoral cycle across various electoral systems if the political development is predictable. However, if actions of the parties are uncertain, namely the alternations of governments tend to be frequent, partial, and opened to all parties, and hence neither winners nor losers know how steady their status is with respect to the political development in the country, their satisfaction tend to fluctuate over time. Therefore, the conclusion reached is the more stable West European democracies have limited generalizability to the low-predictable systems in Central and Eastern Europe.

scholarly journals Institutions, Incorporation, and Inequality: The Case of Minority Health Inequalities in Europe

2018 ◽  
Vol 59 (2) ◽  
pp. 248-267 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elyas Bakhtiari ◽  
Sigrun Olafsdottir ◽  
Jason Beckfield
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Health Inequalities ◽  
Minority Health ◽  
European Social Survey ◽  
Immigrant Incorporation ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
Life Chances ◽  
Survey Results ◽  
Two Measures ◽  
The Relationship

Scholars interested in the relationship between social context and health have recently turned attention further “upstream” to understand how political, social, and economic institutions shape the distribution of life chances across contexts. We compare minority health inequalities across 22 European countries ( N = 199,981) to investigate how two such arrangements—welfare state effort and immigrant incorporation policies—influence the distribution of health and health inequalities. We examine two measures of health from seven waves of the European Social Survey. Results from a series of multilevel mixed-effects models show that minority health inequalities vary across contexts and persist after accounting for socioeconomic differences. Cross-level interaction results show that welfare state effort is associated with better health for all groups but is unrelated to levels of inequality between groups. In contrast, policies aimed at protecting minorities from discrimination correlate with smaller relative health inequalities.

scholarly journals Institutional trust, political participation, and corruption: A European comparative perspective

Sociologija ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 63 (2) ◽  
pp. 336-354
Author(s):  
Jovana Zafirovic ◽  
Branka Matijevic ◽  
Bozidar Filipovic
Keyword(s):  
Political Participation ◽  
European Social Survey ◽  
Institutional Trust ◽  
Multilevel Regression ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
Depth Analysis ◽  
Survey Results ◽  
Post Industrial ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Cross National

Despite the theoretical and political importance of the relationship between institutional trust and different forms of political participation in Europe, theoretical and empirical focus on post-industrial economies leave the literature wanting of explanations of cross-national variation in political participation. In this article, we test whether levels of corruption influence the relationship between institutional trust and participation. We rely on the 9th wave of the European Social Survey results for an in-depth analysis of the relationship between institutional trust, political participation, and perceived corruption in 27 countries. The multilevel regression analysis results show that the effect of institutional trust on institutionalised political participation (including voting) is moderated by corruption. However, corruption does not moderate the relationship between institutional trust and non-institutionalised forms of participation.

scholarly journals Satisfaction with democracy and perceived performance of the welfare state in Europe

2018 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 241-256 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tomáš Sirovátka ◽  
Martin Guzi ◽  
Steven Saxonberg
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
European Social Survey ◽  
Policy Outcomes ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
Institutional Conditions ◽  
Satisfaction With Democracy ◽  
Perceived Performance ◽  
Policy Goals ◽  
Welfare State Regimes ◽  
The Welfare State

This article tests several hypotheses for explaining the link between welfare-state performance and satisfaction with democracy. In conducting our multilevel analysis, we combine data from the European Social Survey 2012 special module on democracy with data on contextual and institutional conditions, including those on welfare-state regimes. Our results show that a discrepancy between desired policy goals and perceived policy outcomes in connection with the welfare state (i.e. the policy deficit) influences citizens’ perceptions of how well democracy in their country works. Social policies which citizens see as reducing poverty correlate positively with satisfaction with democracy. We also find evidence that satisfaction with democracy depends on the type of welfare regime, as well as on changes in economic conditions that arise due to financial crisis.

Lost in transition, found in recession? Satisfaction with democracy in Central Europe before and after economic crises

2018 ◽  
Vol 52 (3) ◽  
pp. 227-234
Author(s):  
Kláara Vlachová
Keyword(s):  
Central Europe ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
European Social Survey ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
Satisfaction With Democracy ◽  
State Of The Economy ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Democratic Performance ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Way

For decades, research on democracy has produced evidence that the peoples of countries in Central Europe are less satisfied with the way democracy works in their countries than people in Western Europe. Using the data from the European Social Survey (ESS) I explore, how satisfaction with the way democracy works (SWD) changed in these countries between 2004 and 2014 and test the impact of satisfaction with the present state of the economy and trust in parliament on SWD. Results of the analysis reveal that people in Central Europe are still less satisfied with the democratic performance on average than people in Western Europe, but their satisfaction is on the rise especially in countries where the economy performs well, economic performance brings better standard of living, and people share a sense of economic optimism. Results also suggest that in countries where economic optimism is low, political evaluations of “crises in democracy” may play a larger role in explaining satisfaction with democratic performance.

scholarly journals Cross-National Comparison of Equivalence and Measurement Quality of Response Scales in Denmark and Taiwan

2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 117-135
Author(s):  
Pei-shan Liao ◽  
Willem E. Saris ◽  
Diana Zavala-Rojas
Keyword(s):  
Measurement Errors ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Reliability And Validity ◽  
European Social Survey ◽  
Measurement Quality ◽  
Cross Cultural Comparison ◽  
Response Scales ◽  
National Comparison ◽  
Different Response

Abstract The split-ballot multitrait-multimethod (SB-MTMM) approach has been used to evaluate the measurement quality of questions in survey research. It aims to reduce the response burden of the classic MTMM design, which requires repeating alternative formulations of a survey measure to the same respondent at least three times, by using combinations of two methods in multiple groups. The SB-MTMM approach has been applied to the European Social Survey (ESS) to examine the quality of questions across countries, including the differences in response design and measurement errors. Despite wide application of the SB-MTMM design in Europe, it is yet unknown whether the same quality of survey instruments can be achieved in both a different cultural context and in a logographic writing system, like the one in Taiwan. This study tests for measurement invariance and compares measurement quality in Taiwan and Denmark, by estimating the reliability and validity of different response scales using the SB-MTMM approach. By using the same questions as in the ESS, a cross-cultural comparison is made, in order to understand whether the studied response scales perform equally well in Taiwan, compared to a European country. Results show that quality estimates are comparable across countries.

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