Conceptualizing and measuring support for democracy: a new approach

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Authors
Claassen, Christopher
Ackermann, Kathrin
Bertsou, Eri
Borba, Lucas
Carlin, Ryan E.
Cavari, Amnon
Dahlum, Sirianne
Gherghina, Sergiu
Hawkins, Darren
Lelkes, Yphtach
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Date
2024-07-23
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Comparative Political Studies
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0010-4140
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2024-07-23
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Abstract EN
Much of what we know about public support for democracy is based on survey questions about “democracy,” a term that varies in meaning across countries and likely prompts uncritically supportive responses. This paper proposes a new approach to measuring support for democracy. We develop a battery of 17 survey questions that cover all eight components of liberal democracy as defined by the V-Dem project. We then ask respondents from 19 national samples to evaluate these rights and institutions. We find considerable heterogeneity across countries in how our items cohere, especially in less developed contexts. Yet, those items that are more weakly connected with general support for liberal democracy tend to reveal the influence of political events and actors, arguably indicating weaknesses in political cultures. We further identify a concise subset of seven items that provide a reliable and valid measure of support for liberal democracy across our different samples.
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Keywords PL
Keywords EN
support for democracy
public opinion
survey research
measurement
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cc-by
Except as otherwise noted, this item is licensed under the Attribution licence | Permitted use of copyrighted works
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Plemienność czy obojętność? Badanie demokratycznych i ich konsekwencji w Polsce
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