Based on a new data-set covering 29 European and neighboring countries, this volume shows how, Europeans view and evaluate democracy: what are their conceptions of democracy, how do they assess the quality of democracy in their own country, and to what extent do they consider their country's democracy as legitimate? The study shows that Europeans share a common view of liberal democracy, which is complemented by elements of social and direct democracy, which go beyond the basic liberal model. The level of their demands in terms of democracy varies, however, considerably across Europe and is related to their assessment of democracy: the worse the quality of democracy in a given country, the higher the respective demands on democracy. The analysis of the determinants of democratic views and evaluations shows that they depend on the political and economic (but less on the cultural) context conditions.
Mónica Ferrín is Researcher at the University of Zürich, where she works in several projects related to citizens' attitudes, behavior, and citizenship. She also collaborates with Collegio Carlo Alberto.
Hanspeter Kriesi holds the Stein Rokkan Chair in Comparative Politics at the European University Institute in Florence and has previously taught at the universities of Amsterdam, Geneva and Zurich. He was the director of a Swiss national research programme on the ‘Challenges to democracy in the 21st century’ from 2005–12.
Sonia Alonso is an Associate Professor in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. Her main research interests involve the analysis of political devolution, party competition in decentralised states, minority nationalism, and ethnic conflict.
Besir Ceka is Associate Professor of Political Science at Davidson College.
Rory Fitzgerald is Director of the European Social Survey, and an academic at the School of Policy and Global Affairs of City, University of London.
Mark Franklin's numerous publications include The Decline of Class Voting in Britain, Choosing Europe? and Voter Turnout.
Braulio Gómez is a Researcher at the University of Deusto.
Enrique Hernández Pérez is an Associate Professor at the Department of Political Science of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) and a fellow at the Democracy, Elections, and Citizenship (DEC) research group.
Pedro C Magalhães is a Senior Researcher at the University of Lisbon, studying public opinion and judicial politics, with an emphasis on attitudes towards democracy, procedural fairness in governance, political behaviour, and survey methodology.
Radoslaw Markowski is Director of the Polish National Election Study at the Institute of Political Studies, Polish Academy of Sciences.
Paolo Moncagatta is Professor of Political Science, Universidad San Francisco de Quito.
Leonardo Morlino is Professor of Political Science and Director of the International Research Center on Democracies and Democratizations at LUISS, Rome.
Irene Palacios is a Postdoctoral Researcher at Maastricht University for the project ‘Democratic Representation across countries, context and time’. Her research interests are in comparative politics, quality of democracy, political representation, and democratic attitudes. She holds a PhD from the European University Institute (Florence, Italy) and, previously, she was a Research Associate at the Institute for Advanced Social Studies in Spain.
Pedro Riera is a Researcher at the European University Institute, Florence. He works on comparative politics, electoral systems and political behaviour. He is the author of 'Non bis in idem: voto escindido en sistemas electorales mixtos. Los casos de Nueva Zelanda en 1999 y 2002' (Revista Española de Ciencia Política, 2009).
Willem Saris is visiting Professor at the Department of Political and Social Sciences, University Pompeu Fabra.
Mariano Torcal is a Professor of Political Science at Pompeu Fabra University and the Director of the Research and Expertise Centre for Survey Methodology.
Alexander H Trechsel is Professor of Political Science at the University of Lucerne. He obtained his PhD in Political Science at the University of Geneva in 1999. From 2005 to 2016 he held the Swiss Chair in Federalism and Democracy at the European University Institute in Fiesole. In addition, he was from 2013 to 2016 Head of the Department for Political and Social Sciences at the same institute. Also, from 2012 to 2015, he was Faculty Fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University.
Bernhard Weßels is Professor at the Humboldt University of Berlin and Deputy Director of the Department “Democracy and Democratization” at the WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
Sally Widdop is a Research Manager at Ipsos-MORI, UK. She is based in the Research Methods Centre and advises on methodological issues related to European and International survey projects.
Lizzy Winstone is a Senior Research Associate at the University of Bristol.
