(Dis)satisfaction with Democracy in 24 Countries in 2004 and 2014

With the ascend of populist parties in modern Western democracies dissatisfaction with (the functioning of) democracy seems to be on the rise. At the same time people appear to withdraw more and more from democratic institutions (Foa en Mounk 2016; Mair 2013). In this paper we develop a cross-cultural (and longitudinal equivalent) scale with which to measure (dis)satisfaction with democracy based on the ISSP citizenship modules (waves 2004 and 2014). First, based on theoretical considerations, 14 ISSP-items related to democratic (dis)satisfaction are selected and trends between 2004 and 2014 are described for those 24 countries for which all items are included in both surveys. Overall, for example, satisfaction with democracy today has decreased for the 24 selected countries between 2004 and 2014. Also, quite remarkable, while in 2004, on average, satisfaction with democracy today was higher than satisfaction with democracy 10 years ago – in other words according to most people the state of democracy in their country had improved during the last 10 years in 2004 – ten years later this relationship has been reversed: people are, on average, in 2014 more satisfied with democracy ten years ago than with democracy today. Second, using Mplus’ alignment optimization in establishing cross-cultural and longitudinal measurement invariance a latent scale is sought to measure and compare (dis)satisfaction with democracy among different countries and across time. Which ISSP-items are used to construct the scale and which countries are comparable? How do the countries compare on their structural and latent means (Reeskens en Hooghe 2008)? Third, the structural and latent scales are employed not only to compare and explain developments between 2004 and 2014 in (dis)satisfaction with democracy for the 24 countries concerned but also to measure, for each country, the level of (dis)satisfaction, both in 2004 and 2014, with democracy for different groups (for example based on age and educational level) ; these differences in ‘democratic (dis)satisfaction’ among different groups within countries are consequentially used to construct a ‘democratic polarization’ score per country in 2004 and 2014. Finally, it is argued, as far as the electoral potential of populist parties is concerned, that not only the overall degree of (dis)satisfaction with democracy but also the amount of ‘democratic polarization’ in a country is important. References Foa, Roberto Stefan en Yascha Mounk (2016). The democratic disconnect. In: Journal of Democracy, jg. 27, nr. 3, p. 5-17. Mair, P. (2013). Ruling the Void: The Hollowing of Western Democracy. London: Verso. Reeskens, Tim en Marc Hooghe (2008). Cross-cultural measurement equivalence of generalized trust. Evidence from the European Social Survey (2002 and 2004). In: Social Indicators Research, jg. 85, nr. 3, p. 515-532.