The quest for democratic bliss: Which dimensions hold the key?
The majority of Europeans value living in a country governed by democratic principles. It is argued that the evaluation of democracy and satisfaction with it are pivotal for ensuring its functioning and sustainability. When asked about the importance of specific indicators of democracy, suc...
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| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | German |
| Published: |
Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory, Belgrade
2025-01-01
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| Series: | Filozofija i Društvo |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doiserbia.nb.rs/img/doi/0353-5738/2025/0353-57382502337N.pdf |
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| Summary: | The majority of Europeans value living in a country governed by democratic
principles. It is argued that the evaluation of democracy and satisfaction
with it are pivotal for ensuring its functioning and sustainability. When
asked about the importance of specific indicators of democracy, such as free
and fair elections, equality before the courts, and freedom of the press,
most respondents assign a high and comparable level of importance to each.
However, the overall significance of democracy and its dimensions does not
necessarily reflect the perceived quality of democracy within a given
nation. To explore the determinants of satisfaction with the state of
democracy while accounting for cross-national variation, a multilevel
regression analysis is conducted, examining the impact of various factors on
four dimensions of democratic evaluation - electoral, liberal, social, and
direct - using comparative data from the ESS Round 10 Understandings and
Evaluations of Democracy module. The results reveal significant disparities
across dimensions of democracy, with Nordic countries leading and some
Western Balkan and Eastern European countries lagging. They also underscore
complex relationships between political efficacy and evaluations of
democracy, showing a positive association with external efficacy,
particularly in countries with higher political rights, and a negative
association with internal efficacy, which diminishes in contexts of greater
civil liberties. |
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| ISSN: | 0353-5738 2334-8577 |