Institutions, Social Conditions and Evaluations of Democracy in Europe

This project examines how institutions and social conditions affect perceptions of elections and democratic performance. We model the gap between what citizens desire from democratic politics, and their perceptions of how democracy is working in their nation. At a basic level, democratic legitimacy requires that people perceive their elections are fair, and that they offer meaningful choices. In many nations - particularly in younger democracies - there is a substantial gap between what citizens expect from democracy and what they perceive they are getting. This paper uses European Social Survey (ESS) data from 29 countries to examine factors that structure perceptions of whether or not elections are conducted fairly, whether political parties are seen as offering clear choices, and satisfaction with democracy. Our analysis indicates that nearly one-third of variance in the expectations gaps are due to country-level factors, and party and electoral institutions do explain much of that gap.