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Have Europeans Grown Tired of Democracy? New Evidence from 18 Consolidated Democracies, 1981-2018
[journal article]
Abstract
Democracies without democrats are not sustainable. Yet, recent studies argue that Western citizens are turning their backs on the system of self-governance, thereby eroding the societal foundations of consolidated democracies. We contribute to discussions about citizen support of democracy by 1) ana... view more
Democracies without democrats are not sustainable. Yet, recent studies argue that Western citizens are turning their backs on the system of self-governance, thereby eroding the societal foundations of consolidated democracies. We contribute to discussions about citizen support of democracy by 1) analyzing new cross-national survey data in 18 European countries that enable assessing the temporal and geographical generalizability of previous findings; 2) disentangling age-, cohort-, and period effects, thereby aligning the analytical methods with the theoretical arguments; 3) transparently reporting the entire evidence derived from pre-registered analyses to avoid cherrypicked findings. Our findings show that citizens of consolidated democracies continue to endorse self-governance. Yet, in some but not all countries, there is evidence for a growing number of ‘democrats in name only’, particularly among the young generation. These findings suggest a second phase in research on democratic fatigue that broadens the analytical scope for the multi-faceted nature of democratic support.... view less
Keywords
democracy; Europe; political attitude; populism; regime; preference; political interest
Classification
Political Process, Elections, Political Sociology, Political Culture
Free Keywords
Illiberal democracy; Institutional Trust; Civic Culture; APC analysis; European Values Survey (EVS)
Document language
English
Publication Year
2020
Journal
British Journal of Political Science (2020)
ISSN
1469-2112
Status
Preprint; peer reviewed