Both in academic and journalistic accounts observers often refer to a supposed increasing level of political discontent. However, scholars do not agree on what precisely this discontent is, what it consists of and how it should be measured. We assert that it is also false to assume that political discontent is a uniform creature. Political discontent differs in form, intensity and breadth. It may be a broad negative attitude rejecting the entire political system or it may be a more limited critical stance towards certain political goals, actors or aspects of democratic politics. The generic label of political discontent incorporates various attitudes such as political scepticism, distrust, cynicism and alienation. We distinguish different types of discontent based on two axes: the first differentiates between attitudes towards the authorities, the regime and the community, while the second axis differentiates attitudes according to their degree of reflexivity and negativism. In this paper we investigate two research questions using data new types of data gathered by an inline application during the Dutch election (Vote Compass) by which we were able to gauge more complex and deeper lying political attitudes. On the basis of the representative sample we distinguish four types of citizens, using latent class analysis which combines both their attitudes towards the targets and the degree of popular discontent towards politics. Second, we try to describe the characteristics of those types by using different variables: structural characteristics, political participation (political knowledge, interest, voting turnout, uncertainty of party choice and the moment of the finale decision which party to vote for), resentment (feelings of powerlessness, economic insecurity, relative deprivation, social distrust) and voting behaviour.
