Valence and satisfaction with democracy: A cross-national analysis of nine Western European democracies

DEBRA LEITER ^[1] ; Michael Clark ^[2]
1. [1] University of Missouri–Kansas City
  
  University of Missouri–Kansas City
  
  Township of Kaw, Estados Unidos
2. [2] Northern Illinois University
  
  Northern Illinois University
  
  Township of DeKalb, Estados Unidos
Localización: European journal of political research, ISSN 0304-4130, ISSN-e 1475-6765, Vol. 54, Nº. 3, 2015, págs. 543-562
Idioma: inglés
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Resumen
- In recent studies, scholars have highlighted factors that influence citizen satisfaction with democracy, with particular emphasis on the role played by the institutional features of political systems, and ideology. This article presents the first empirical study of whether changes in important party characteristics can affect individuals’ satisfaction with democracy. Using a measure of parties’ character-valence derived from content analysis of news reports, evidence is presented that when governing parties’ images decline with respect to important valence-related attributes such as competence, unity and integrity, then citizen satisfaction with democracy similarly declines. However, this relationship is conditional on the performance of opposition parties. These findings are relevant to studies of regime support, political representation, democratic accountability and voter behaviour.