Democratic elections are designed to create unequal outcomes: for some to win, others have to lose. This book examines the consequences of this inequality for the legitimacy of democratic political institutions and systems. Using survey data collected in democracies around the globe, the authors argue that losing generates ambivalent attitudes towards political authorities. Because the efficacy and ultimately the survival of democratic regimes can be seriously threatened if the losers do not consent to their loss, the central themes of this book focus on losing: how losers respond to their loss and how institutions shape losing. While there tends to be a gap in support for the political system between winners and losers, it is not ubiquitous. The book paints a picture of losers' consent that portrays losers as political actors whose experience and whose incentives to accept defeat are shaped both by who they are as individuals as well as the political environment in which loss is given meaning.
Given that the winner-loser gap in legitimacy is a persistent feature of democratic politics, the findings presented in this book contain crucial implications for our understanding of the functioning and stability of democracies.
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All in all this is an interesting book which deserves to be read. -- Robert Klemmensen, 'Political Studies Review'
Christopher Anderson is the Ralf Dahrendorf Professor of European Politics and Society at the London School of Economics. A student of political behaviour, Anderson’s research has centred on the micro-foundations of markets and democracy. Past research projects have investigated the popularity of governments, the dynamics of public opinion about European integration, and people’s satisfaction with democracy. In other streams of research, he has investigated the connection between welfare states and citizen behaviour and the political attitudes and behaviours of immigrants in Europe.
André Blais, Université de Montréal
Shaun Bowler received his Ph.D from Washington University, St. Louis and joined the UCR faculty in 1989. Professor Bowler's research interests include comparative electoral systems and voting behaviour. His work examines the relationship between institutional arrangements and voter choice in a variety of settings ranging from the Republic of Ireland to California's initiative process. Professor Bowler is the author of Demanding Choices: Opinion Voting and Direct Democracy with Todd Donovan, University of Michigan Press (1998). He is Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of California, Riverside.
Todd Donovan's research examines representation and election systems, political behaviour, electoral politics, public opinion, and direct democracy. He is co-author of several books, including Electoral Reform and Minority Representation (with S. Bowler and D. Brockington), Ohio State University Press (2003); and Reforming the Republic (with Bowler), Prentice Hall (2004). He is a Professor of Political Science at Western Washington University, in Bellingham, where he has taught for more than 20 years.
Ola Listhaug is a Professor of Political Science in the Department of Sociology and Political Science, at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, and research group leader at the Centre for the Study of Civil War at the International Peace Research Institute (PRIO).
