Does Institutional Openness Affect Political Dissatisfaction? A multilevel Analysis of the Impact of Institutional Openness on Kinds of Dissatisfaction

Previous studies indicate a relationship between institutional openness and various political attitudes and citizen behaviour. It is generally thought that institutional openness promotes positive political attitudes such as political trust, internal efficacy and satisfaction with democracy. However, there is still no coherent understanding of how the institutional context shapes different kinds of political dissatisfaction. It is important to recognise that political dissatisfaction may be a question of kind rather than degree and not all kinds of political dissatisfaction have negative implications for political legitimacy. For example, some scholars argue that critical attitudes may be beneficial for democracy (Norris, 1999; Rosanvallon, 2008). This dispute calls attention to the importance of recognising that there are different dimensions of political attitudes, and ultimately different kinds of dissatisfaction. This paper examines the link between central aspects of the institutional structure and four different citizen profiles that differ on their values on the extent of political support and their subjective political empowerment. One of the profiles is a satisfied citizen who on all accounts appear to be content with the current state of affairs. The three other citizen profiles correspond to different kinds of political dissatisfaction identified in previous literature. By identifying different kinds of political dissatisfaction, it is possible to examine whether institutional openness also promotes the more benign citizen profiles and thereby increases the political legitimacy of the system. The data for this study comes from the fourth round of the European Social Survey (ESS 2008) and comprise respondents from all available democracies. The research questions are examined through a series of multinomial logistic regressions.