Conceptualising and Measuring Support for Liberal Democracy across the World

• In Event: Democratic Support: Misperceptions and Understanding of Democracy

Abstract

Public support for a democratic system of government is thought to be one of the main bulwarks against democratic backsliding. Yet almost everything we know about support for democracy is based on survey measures which are generally agreed to be limited, if not deeply flawed. Our understanding of support for democracy, its causes, and its consequences for democracy, is therefore more questionable than we would like to admit. In response, we – a consortium of scholars of support for democracy – propose a new approach to measuring support for democracy. Instead of asking people about their approval of “democracy”, an abstract and complex concept, we propose asking instead about public approval of the more granular rights, institutions, and processes which collectively constitute “liberal democracy”. We argue that this approach will: embed public support for democracy within the concept of liberal democracy; provide for more tangible and valid measures; and permits insight into the particular features of liberal democracy which publics find the least compelling. Our set of items is tested and validated in more than a dozen samples drawn from all continents.

Authors

• Christopher Claassen, University of Glasgow

• Kathrin Ackermann, University of Bern

• Eri Bertsou, University of St. Gallen

• Ryan Carlin, Georgia State University

• Sirianne Dahlum, University of Oslo

• Sergiu Gherghina, University of Glasgow

• Yphtach Lelkes, University of Pennsylvania

• Pedro Magalhaes, University of Lisbon

• Robert Britt Mattes, University of Strathclyde

• Maurits Meijers, Radboud University

• Anja Neundorf, Unveristy of Glasgow

• Aykut Ozturk, University of Glasgow

• Rodolfo Sarsfield, Autonomous University of Queretaro

• Ben Stanley, SWPS University

• Tsung-han Tsai, Academia Sinica

• Andrej Zaslove, Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen

• Elizabeth J. Zechmeister, Vanderbilt University