The Effect of Participatory Democracy on Regime Legitimacy in Europe

A large body of literature discusses the disaffection of citizens with representative democracy. The existence of several problems in the process of political representation led to a gradual abandon of the traditional modes of involvement (i.e. electoral turnout, party membership) and to a decrease of regime legitimacy (i.e. confidence in state authorities and political institutions). Over the last two decades, one of the solutions to address this ‘democratic malaise’ has been the adoption of direct democracy regulations and dialog-oriented procedures where citizens were given a direct say in political decision-making (Scarrow 2001; Dalton et al. 2004; Geissel and Newton 2012). While earlier studies have shown the impact of participatory procedures on new types of political engagement, little attention has been paid to their role for regime legitimacy. This paper tries to fill this empirical void and seeks to identify the effect of participatory procedures on regime legitimacy in Europe. The cross-national analysis includes 44 countries (both established and new democracies) and covers the 1991-2013 period. It argues and tests the explanatory power of the number, types and practices of participatory rules (i.e. separate measures for direct democracy and dialog-oriented tools). The analysis also controls for alternative explanations such as political stability, length and strength of democracy, economic development, and perception of corruption.