Satisfaction with Democracy: What Matters Where?

Satisfaction with democracy is probably one of the most contested indicators in public opinion research. Indeed, it is not fully clear that this indicator in fact reflects support for democracy, as it is normally assumed. Canache, Mondak and Seligson, for example, arrive at very pessimistic conclusions, and recommend avoiding its use in research on public opinion on democracy (Canache, Mondak, Seligson 2001). In spite of the debate over its suitability as an indicator, satisfaction with democracy continues to be widely used. The vast majority of surveys on public opinion have incorporated this item in their questionnaire, and there are rich longitudinal data on levels of satisfaction with democracy in most parts of the world. In light of this, it is pressing to understand what this item measures, and in how far it is comparable across countries. Using the unique new dataset from the ESS Round 6, this paper intends to assess the foundations of satisfaction with democracy in 29 countries. We argue that democracy is not a one-dimensional concept, and that citizens might differ concerning the criteria they expect a democracy to fulfil. More precisely, we analyze how the relevance of 19 different attributes of democracy for citizens’ satisfaction varies across countries, ranging from input to output criteria. If satisfaction with democracy is a summary of citizens´ expectations towards democracy, and evaluations of their democratic systems, which dimension of democracy matters most in which country? In other words, are sources of satisfaction or dissatisfaction different across European democracies? Hence, this paper addresses the workshops’ topic of empirically assessing cross-national variations in citizens preferences from democracy and intends to clarify the question how citizens evaluate existing political processes.