Political culture and understandings of democracy

Abstract

Following the political culture paradigm, public support for democracy is crucial for the stability of democratic regimes. While public opinion research since the early 1990s suggests widespread support for democracy, these findings rely mainly on abstract indicators of democratic support that prove insufficient to distinguish between genuine and spurious commitments to democracy. Scholars therefore addressed the idea that citizens’ abstract desires to live in a democratically governed country are associated with different meanings and understandings of democracy. As a result, recent surveys include questions and items that aim to measure citizens’ specific conceptions of democratic decision-making and their expectations of democratic institutions. In this panel, we combine theoretical and conceptual contributions with empirical analyses on the causes and consequences of people’s meaning and understanding of democracy. We thereby contribute to the following topics and questions: Conceptualizing and Measuring Understandings of Democracy: Which models and conceptions of democracy can be distinguished? What are normative core principles and procedures of respective conceptions of democracy? How should we measure different understandings of democracy and what are possible challenges? How are different understandings of democracy distributed within a country and in comparison to other countries? Causes of Understandings of Democracy: How are individual-level determinants such as personality, socio-economic resources, political sophistication and political attitudes associated with citizens’ understandings of democracy? To what extent are experiences with democratic procedures or (un)fair treatment related to perceptions and expectations of democracy? How does the institutional context, such as the quality of democratic institutions or the electoral and party system, affect citizens' understandings of democracy? Consequences of Understandings of Democracy: How are different understandings of democracy associated with citizens’ evaluation of political institutions and the legitimacy of the political regime? How are different understanding of democracy related to people’s political behavior such as different types of political participation, turnout and voting behavior?

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