The Effect of Losing Repeatedly on Loser’s Consent

One of the appealing ideas in the procedural fairness framework is the potential to overcome dissatisfaction with unfavourable outcomes by giving people a voice in the decision-making process. However, we can wonder whether this holds when the process leads to outcomes that are repeatedly unfavourable? In effect, losing repeatedly is claimed to deteriorate legitimacy perceptions, because the representative system fails continuously to turn certain groups of citizens (and their policy preferences) into winners (Anderson et al., 2005). Long periods without alternation in power might threaten the functioning and very existence of the democratic system. Yet, existing research is limited. We aim to fill this gap by gathering survey and experimental evidence on repeatedly losing. The main research question reads as follows: Does repeatedly losing deteriorate legitimacy perceptions significantly more than losing occasionally? We draw on panel survey data on citizens’ participation in two referendums in the Netherlands and designed a vignette experiment to study the effect of an additional third direct vote. This allows us to study the effects of repeatedly losing on losers’ consent.