scholarly journals Who wants technocrats? A comparative study of citizen attitudes in nine young and consolidated democracies

2021 ◽  
pp. 136914812110183
Author(s):  
Mihail Chiru ◽  
Zsolt Enyedi
Keyword(s):  
Strong Support ◽  
Political Efficacy ◽  
Quality Of Democracy ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Satisfaction With Democracy ◽  
Civic Activism ◽  
Citizen Attitudes ◽  
Corruption Perception ◽  
Comparative Survey

Technocratic cabinets and expert, non-political ministers appointed in otherwise partisan cabinets have become a common reality in recent decades in young and older democracies, but we know little about how citizens see this change and what values, perceptions and experiences drive their attitudes towards technocratic government. The article explores the latter topic by drawing on recent comparative survey data from nine countries, both young and consolidated democracies from Europe and Latin America. Two individual-level characteristics trigger particularly strong support for the replacement of politicians with experts: low political efficacy and authoritarian values. They are complemented by a third, somewhat weaker factor: corruption perception. At the macro level, technocracy appeals to citizens of countries where the quality of democracy is deficient and where technocratic cabinets are a part of historical legacy. Surprisingly, civic activism and, partially, satisfaction with democracy enhance technocratic orientation, indicating such attitudes are not expressions of alienation or depoliticisation.

scholarly journals Who wants technocrats? A comparative study of citizen attitudes in nine young and consolidated democracies

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mihail Chiru ◽  
Zsolt Enyedi
Keyword(s):  
Strong Support ◽  
Political Efficacy ◽  
Quality Of Democracy ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Satisfaction With Democracy ◽  
Civic Activism ◽  
Citizen Attitudes ◽  
Corruption Perception ◽  
Comparative Survey

Technocratic cabinets and expert, non-political ministers appointed in otherwise partisan cabinets have become a common reality in recent decades in young and older democracies, but we know little about how citizens see this change and what values, perceptions and experiences drive their attitudes towards technocratic government. The article explores the latter topic by drawing on recent comparative survey data from 9 countries, both young and consolidated democracies from Europe and Latin America. Two individual-level characteristics trigger particularly strong support for the replacement of politicians with experts: low political efficacy and authoritarian values. They are complemented by a third, somewhat weaker factor: corruption perception. At macro level, technocracy appeals to citizens of countries where the quality of democracy is deficient and where technocratic cabinets are part of historical legacy. Surprisingly, civic activism, and partially satisfaction with democracy, enhance technocratic orientation, indicating such attitudes are not expressions of alienation or depoliticization.

scholarly journals Corrupción en la función pública: un estudio sobre correlaciones entre corrupción, calidad de la democracia, gobernanza, desigualdad de renta y desempleo en el mundo (2008-2012)

2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 15
Author(s):  
Thiago Perez Bernardes de Moraes ◽  
Geraldo Leopoldo Da Silva Torrecillas
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Democracy ◽  
Corruption Perception Index ◽  
Development Indicators ◽  
Governance Indicators ◽  
Corruption Perception ◽  
World Development

El estudio cuantitativo de la corrupción ha crecido en las últimas décadas, abriendo caminos sin precedentes para la pesquisa social. En este trabajo, se hace una comparación transnacional sobre la percepción de corrupción en la función pública desde 2008 hasta 2012. Se trabaja con tres hipótesis: 1) la corrupción es más frecuente en países con menor calidad democrática; 2) todos los indicadores de gobernanza ejercen algún efecto sobre la corrupción; 3) la desigualdad es un importante predictor del nivel de corrupción, aún más que el desempleo. Para probar estas hipótesis se utilizan datos del Democracy Ranking of the Quality of Democracy, Corruption Perception Index, Worldwide Governance Indicators, datos del World Development Indicators y del Banco Mundial, datos estos que calculan el nivel global de desempleo y el índice Gini, que mide la desigualdad de consumo y renta. Los resultados muestran que las dos primeras hipótesis son adherentes, ya que hay alta correlación negativa entre corrupción en la función pública y cualidad de la democracia además de los seis indicadores de gobernanza. La tercera hipótesis muestra relativa adherencia pues, desigualdad de renta y desempleo están correlacionados con la corrupción en el funcionalismo público, sin embargo, la correlación tiene bajo valor de significancia, lo que indica que estos dos factores son apenas parte de un todo entre factores que componen el nivel de corrupción. © Revista Colombiana de Ciencias Sociales.

scholarly journals CORRUPÇÃO, DEMOCRACIA E CONFIANÇA POLÍTICA NA AMÉRICA LATINA

2014 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Thiago Perez Bernardes de Moraes ◽  
Romer Motttinha Santos ◽  
Geraldo Leopoldo da Silva Torrecillas
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Democracy ◽  
Corruption Perception Index ◽  
Corruption Perception ◽  
America Latina

As democracias latino-americanas seguem em consolidação, entretanto, ainda estão em estado de incompletude, nesse sentido, a percepção de corrupção parece altamente disseminada. Este trabalho tem o objetivo de testar duas hipóteses sobre a América Latina: 1) o baixo nível de confiança nos partidos políticos e no Congresso Nacional guarda relação com a percepção de corrupção; 2) a percepção de corrupção guarda relação com a qualidade da democracia. Para testar nossas hipóteses utilizamos três bases de dados distintas: 1) dados do corruption perception index, dos anos de 2012 e 2013; 2) dados do Latinobarómetro referentes à confiança em partidos políticos e confiança no Congresso Nacional de 2010 e 2011; 3) dados do The Democracy Ranking of the Quality of Democracy de 2008 a 2011 desenvolvidos pelo The Democracy Ranking Association. Nossos resultados mostram que a percepção de corrupção influencia no nível de confiança no Congresso e nos partidos; indicam também que, países latino americanos com menor qualidade democrática estão mais susceptíveis a altos níveis de percepção de corrupção.

Democracy and Quality of Life in Asian Societies

2011 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 343-357
Author(s):  
SHINYA SASAOKA ◽  
KATSUNORI SEKI
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Survey Data ◽  
Hierarchical Modeling ◽  
Causal Effect ◽  
Political Regime ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Satisfaction With Democracy ◽  
Country Level ◽  
The Relationship

AbstractThis article examines whether democracy affects quality of life. Scholars have conducted surveys to investigate whether democracy is likely to lead to good quality of life. There are two contested views to the relationship: some suggest that democracy has a positive causal effect on quality of life, whereas others contend that democracy does not play such a role. Previous findings are supported by cross-national statistical analysis with aggregated survey data. However, aggregated survey data may cause ecological fallacy. Also, in order to ascertain the extant research, it would be beneficial to test the hypothesis by incorporating both individual- and country-level variables. Therefore, this paper applied hierarchical modeling to investigate the regularity. Both individual-level perception of democracy and country-level political regime data were incorporated in our empirical model. Our findings suggest that individual-level satisfaction with democracy has positive causal effect on one's quality of life, whereas the country-level characteristic of the political regime has no effect.

scholarly journals Social Capital and Quality of Democracy Revisited in a Comparative Perspective

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Conceição Pequito Teixeira
Keyword(s):  
Social Capital ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Political Attitudes ◽  
Multivariate Regression Analysis ◽  
European Social Survey ◽  
Social Accountability ◽  
Major Influence ◽  
Quality Of Democracy ◽  
Satisfaction With Democracy

To what extent, if any, does social capital contribute to the democratic formation of citizens´attitudes? It is a major influence among several others or just a minor one when it comes to forming political attitudes? This paper provides an empirical answer to these questions, drawing from the 2010 European Social Survey questionnaire. Its first section includes a discussion about the quality of democarcy in the culturalist approach of Political Science. The following section addresses the operationalization of the concept of quality of democracy and its main dimensions, with particular attention to social accountability. It then seeks to relate the concepts of social accountability as a pivotal dimension of the quality of democracy and social capital as formulated By Robert Putman. We used a multivariate regression analysis to test our hypotheses, which focus on whether the components that make up social capital have a differentiated impact on the formation of political attitudes, i.e. on the degree of satisfaction with democracy and trust in political institutions in old and new democracies.Key-Words: Quality of Democracy, Social Accountability, Social Capital, Satisfaction with Democracy, Trust in Political Institutions.

scholarly journals Satisfaction with Democracy in Perspective: Anchoring Today By Looking Back and Forward

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 14-26
Author(s):  
Pepijn van Houwelingen ◽  
Paul Dekker
Keyword(s):  
Political Trust ◽  
Political Efficacy ◽  
Economic Conditions ◽  
List Type ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Satisfaction With Democracy ◽  
Expert Opinions ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Almost All

Abstract The question of how satisfied people are with the workings of their national democracy has oft en been criticized but is still the international standard measurement of satisfaction with democracy (SWD). In this paper we explore the benefits of adding questions about remembered and expected satisfaction ‘ten years ago’ and ‘ten years from now’, as were asked in the ISSP citizenship surveys of 2004 and 2014. Based on the data from seventeen European countries, we find that national samples: ■ do not show universal ‘nostalgia’, ■ produce good guesses of past satisfaction but show no futurist insights, ■ give retrospective judgments that do not correlate well with changes in expert opinions, ■ give retrospective judgments that do not correlate well with changes in the share of the populist vote. At the individual level we find: ■ that in almost all countries expected satisfaction with democracy ten years from now is a better predictor of political trust and feelings of political efficacy than satisfaction with democracy today, ■ that in almost all countries expected satisfaction with democracy ten years from now is a better predictor of the preference for populist voting (in one national case study), we note that Poland is the only country in our sample where citizens were, in 2014, retrospectively more positive about the development of their democracy, probably due to the severe economic conditions Poland faced in 2004. Overall, we do not find evidence for the relevance of retrospective judgements, but some evidence for the relevance of prospective judgements. We recommend further research into individual changes in present satisfaction and perceptions of these changes to better understand the frames of reference of ‘satisfaction with democracy today’.

Education, democratic governance, and satisfaction with democracy: Multilevel evidence from Latin America

2020 ◽  
pp. 019251212095287
Author(s):  
Alejandro Monsiváis-Carrillo ◽  
Gabriela Cantú Ramos
Keyword(s):  
Latin American ◽  
Democratic Governance ◽  
Public Officials ◽  
Quality Of Democracy ◽  
Level Of Education ◽  
Satisfaction With Democracy ◽  
Highly Educated ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Latin American Countries

It is usually recognized that satisfaction with democracy is enhanced by clean governments and fair democratic procedures. However, under certain circumstances, some citizens might appreciate the quality of democratic governance more than others. Building on research that underlines the accuracy and norm-inducing functions of education, we argue that the quality of democratic governance conditions the relationship between education and satisfaction with democracy. Analyzing data from 18 Latin American countries, we find that higher-educated citizens are less satisfied with the regime than the less-educated. Among the highly educated, nonetheless, the least satisfied are those who were asked by public officials to pay bribes. Highly educated individuals are more satisfied with the regime if their country’s quality of democracy is robust rather than weak. At the lowest level of education, the conditional influence of being asked for a bribe or the quality of democracy is absent.

What Affects Invalid Voting? A Review and Meta-Analysis

2018 ◽  
Vol 54 (4) ◽  
pp. 745-775 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karel Kouba ◽  
Jakub Lysek
Keyword(s):  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Theoretical Perspective ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Aggregate Level ◽  
Quality Of Democracy ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Compulsory Voting ◽  
Level Data ◽  
First Time

Research on invalid voting has expanded rapidly over the past few years. This review article for the first time examines its principal findings and provides a new theoretical perspective on the origins of invalid votes based on a two-dimensional framework. The main results of 54 studies using both individual-level and aggregate-level data as well as the results of experimental and qualitative studies are analysed. The meta-analysis of all existing aggregate-level studies finds that compulsory voting, quality of democracy, fragmentation and closeness of the electoral race play important roles in explaining invalid voting. On the other hand, the research is accompanied by many theoretical and empirical contradictions that hamper the accumulation of knowledge in this field. We therefore conclude by suggesting the challenges for future research.

scholarly journals Multiple Faces of Democrats: Satisfaction with Democracy and Support for Democracy in Malawi

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 18-37
Author(s):  
Michael Chasukwa
Keyword(s):  
Mixed Methods Research ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Quality Of Democracy ◽  
Satisfaction With Democracy ◽  
Economic Survival ◽  
Support For Democracy ◽  
Democracy And Education ◽  
Critical Citizens

Matters of satisfaction with and support for democracy have been at the centre of discussion regarding the survival and quality of democracy in Africa since the early 1990s. While the dominant discourse claims that support for democracy keeps on increasing with time, African countries have somewhat deviated from this path. Thus, African countries have had decreasing levels of satisfaction with democracy and support for democracy since the third democratisation wave of the early 1990s. This article takes interest in the trends of satisfaction with democracy and support for democracy with the objective of explaining factors contributing to the undermining of the survival and quality of democracy. A mixed methods research design, using Afrobarometer survey data for four rounds and secondary data, is deployed to address issues pertaining to critical and satisfied democrats as raised in the article. The article finds that satisfaction with democracy and education are significant predictors of support for democracy in Malawi. It also establishes that critical democrats fight to make democracy work, albeit for their economic survival. The article argues that the survival and quality of democracy in Malawi is compromised by elite critical citizens who show commitment to democracy as a matter of principle when they are instrumentalists.

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