The Evaluation of Legislators' Performance and Satisfaction with Democracy

• In Event: Government Responsiveness: Real and Perceived

Abstract

Prior research sheds light on factors that citizens take into account when they evaluate democratic quality. Various indicators of government and party performance are shown to matter indicating that the output of the political system promotes democratic stability and legitimacy on the long run. This study contributes to this literature by showing that citizens are also perceptive to the performance of individual legislators. The analysis of Hungarian panel data finds that performance perceptions positively affect democratic satisfaction for the whole sample, and citizens who are more interested in politics, who are able to recall their representatives name, and whose party sympathies are also influenced by the party’s candidate take performance into account with a greater emphasis.

Author

• Zsófia Papp, Centre for Social Sciences