scholarly journals The Effect of Parties on Voters’ Satisfaction with Democracy

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 59-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miroslav Nemčok
Keyword(s):  
European Social Survey ◽  
Satisfaction Level ◽  
Survey Period ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
Satisfaction With Democracy ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Degree Of Satisfaction ◽  
The Government ◽  
Party Vote Shares ◽  
Negligible Influence

Electoral ‘winners’ (i.e., voters casting a ballot for a party included in the post-electoral government) are acknowledged to be more satisfied with democracy than supporters of opposition parties. However, little is known about the influence of parties and their specifics on the boost in satisfaction with democracy experienced by their voters. To address this question, the research utilizes 17 surveys from 12 countries included in the European Social Survey rounds 1–8, for which a government replacement took place during the survey period. This allows this research to employ discontinuity design and examine the effect of two attributes related to parties—differences in party vote shares, and voters’ feeling of closeness to a party. The findings suggest that these factors have a negligible influence on voters’ satisfaction with democracy and only scant evidence is found that closeness to a party tends to increase their satisfaction. When voters’ attitudes from before and after a government replacement are compared, changes in government do not seem to strike voters as a surprise and thus they do not cause any sudden and lasting changes in the general attitudes of electorates. Nevertheless, this indicates a novel contribution to the literature: the effect of losing needs some time to fully develop until it results in a decrease in satisfaction level. Based on these findings, the research concludes that when it comes to parties’ characteristics, it is primarily the government/opposition status which determines voters’ degree of satisfaction with democracy.

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.

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.

Political Support

2007 ◽  
Vol 40 (12) ◽  
pp. 1511-1532 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henar Criado ◽  
Francisco Herreros
Keyword(s):  
Political Institutions ◽  
European Social Survey ◽  
Political Support ◽  
Policy Outcomes ◽  
Attribution Of Responsibility ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
Individual Variables ◽  
The Government

The analysis of the causes of political support for political institutions has been focused either on one-case studies that stress the relevance of individual variables or cross-national studies that stress the role of institutions. In this article, the authors suggest that to understand the logic of political support, it is necessary to combine both types of explanations. Using evidence from 17 European countries of the 2002 to 2003 European Social Survey data set, the authors show that the effect of the performance of the institution on political support is higher in majoritarian democracies, where the attribution of responsibility for policy outcomes is clear, than in proportional democracies. They also show that the effect of ideology on political support depends on the type of democracy: Those citizens ideologically far from the government will show higher levels of political support in proportional democracies than in majoritarian ones.

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 Waiting for Godot? Welfare Attitudes in Portugal before and after the Financial Crisis

2016 ◽  
Vol 65 (3) ◽  
pp. 535-558 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mónica Brito Vieira ◽  
Filipe Carreira da Silva ◽  
Cícero Roberto Pereira
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Labour Market ◽  
European Social Survey ◽  
Attitudinal Change ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Waiting For Godot ◽  
Welfare Attitudes ◽  
The Welfare State

Do attitudes towards the welfare state change in response to economic crises? Addressing this question is sometimes difficult because of the lack of longitudinal data. This article deals with this empirical challenge using survey data from the 2008 European Social Survey and from our own follow-up survey of Spring 2013 to track welfare attitudes at the brink and at the peak of the socio-economic crisis in one of the hardest hit countries: Portugal. The literature on social policy preferences predicts an increased polarisation in opinions towards the welfare state between different groups within society – in particular between labour market insiders and outsiders. However, the prediction has scarcely been tested empirically. A notoriously dualised country, Portugal provides a critical setting in which to test this hypothesis. The results show attitudinal change, and this varies according to labour market vulnerability. However, we observe no polarisation and advance alternative explanations for why this is so.

scholarly journals The 2017 French Riots and Trust in the Police. A Quasi-Experimental Approach.

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christof Nägel ◽  
Mark Lutter
Keyword(s):  
Police Officers ◽  
European Social Survey ◽  
Police Misconduct ◽  
Survey Period ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
Police Data ◽  
Personal Experiences ◽  
Quasi Experimental ◽  
Internal And External Validity ◽  
Conventional Regression

On February 2, 2017, French police officers brutally abused a young black man, leading to the first wave of 2017 French riots. The present study exploits the coincidence that the focal event occurred during the survey period of the European Social Survey (ESS) 2016 (Nov. 11, 2016 – March 11, 2017) in France, thus providing the basis for a Natural Experiment on the effect of media reporting on police misconduct on trust in the police. Data is analyzed by means of a Regression Discontinuity Design (RDD) as well as more conventional regression analyses with heteroskedasticity-robust standard errors. In line with procedural justice theory as well as institutional theory, the present study finds support for the notion that this special case of police misconduct did decrease trust in the police. In addition, people reporting a migrant background show even less trust in the police after the event. Frequency of different media consumption does not appear to explain deterioration of trust in the police after the event. The results of this study increase the internal and external validity of the assumption that trust in the police can be explained not only by personal experiences, but also by the perceived unfair treatment of others. Results are robust to various placebo tests. There is some evidence that the effect seems to be short-lived, although the data basis is limited in this regard. Several fruitful approaches for future studies are discussed.

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 The Political Legitimacy of the Healthcare System in Portugal: Insights from the European Social Survey

Healthcare ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 202
Author(s):  
Maria Asensio
Keyword(s):  
Health System ◽  
Economic Crisis ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Political Legitimacy ◽  
Negative Attitude ◽  
European Social Survey ◽  
The Political ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
Private Households ◽  
The Government

This article investigates the political legitimacy of the health care system and the effects of austerity on the population’s welfare, paying particular attention to Portugal, a country severely harmed by the economic crisis. Based on analysis of data collected from the European Social Survey on 14,988 individuals living in private households during the years between 2002 and 2018, the findings of this study aim to analyze the social and political perception of citizens on the state of health services in two distinctive periods—before and after the economic crisis, according to self-interest, ideological preferences, and institutional setup as predictors of the satisfaction with the health system. The results demonstrate a negative attitude towards the health system over the years, a consistent drop during the financial crisis period, and a rapid recovery afterward. The research also shows that healthcare evaluations depend on the perceived institutional effectiveness in the citizenry’s eyes. The more the citizens perceive the government as effective and trust-worthy, the more they are satisfied with the health system. Also, differences in healthcare evaluations among social groups were felt unequally: while vulnerable citizens were more affected by the Government’s plan of austerity measures for health reform, healthcare evaluations of better-off social groups—younger individuals, those with higher incomes, higher education, and better health status—did not decline. This study contributes to the academic debate on the effects of austerity on the population’s welfare attitudes and highlights the need to examine the different impacts of reforms introduced by the crisis on social groups.

scholarly journals The Christmas Market Attack in Berlin and Attitudes Toward Refugees: A Natural Experiment with Data from the European Social Survey

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christof Nägel ◽  
Mark Lutter
Keyword(s):  
Causal Effect ◽  
Terrorist Attack ◽  
Spillover Effect ◽  
European Social Survey ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
Educational Levels ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Quasi Experimental ◽  
Changing Attitudes

ABSTRACT: Using a quasi-experimental research design, this study examines changes in attitudes toward refugees after the terrorist attack on the Berlin Christmas Market of December 19, 2016. In our analysis, we make use of random variation in the field period of the European Social Survey (ESS) to fashion a natural experimental design. The survey’s field period took place in Germany from August 23, 2016, to March 26, 2017. Hence, the Christmas market attack took place approximately halfway through the ESS’s field phase, thus making it possible to study the causal effect on changing attitudes toward minorities before and after the attack. We argue that the terrorist attack creates a spillover effect and negatively shapes public opinion of uninvolved ethnic minorities. Our data analysis suggests that immediately after the event, only people with a right-wing political attitude appear to be affected by the proposed spillover effect. However, we find that the worsening of attitudes toward refugees can also be observed in the general population as time progresses. We do not find variation according to educational levels.

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