Citizen Support for Democratic and Autocratic Regimes

Description

Citizen Support for Democratic and Autocratic Regimes takes a political-culture perspective on the struggle between democracy and autocracy by examining how these regimes fare in the eyes of their citizens. Taking a globally comparative approach, it studies both the levels as well as the individual- and system-level sources of political support in democracies and autocracies worldwide. The book develops an explanatory model of regime support which includes both individual- and system level determinants and specifies not only the general causal mechanisms and pathways through which these determinants affect regime support but also spells out how these effects might vary between the two types of regimes. It empirically tests its propositions using multi-level structural equation modeling and a comprehensive dataset that combines recent public-opinion data from six cross-national survey projects with aggregate data from various sources for more than 100 democracies and autocracies. It finds that both the levels and individual-level sources of regime support are the same in democracies and autocracies, but that the way in which system-level context factors affect regime support differs between the two types of regimes. The results enhance our understanding of what determines citizen support for fundamentally different regimes, help assessing the present and future stability of democracies and autocracies, and provide clear policy implications to those interested in strengthening support for democracy and/or fostering democratic change in autocracies. Comparative Politics is a series for researchers, teachers, and students of political science that deals with contemporary government and politics. Global in scope, books in the series are characterised by a stress on comparative analysis and strong methodological rigour. The series is published in association with the European Consortium for Political Research. For more information visit: www.ecprnet.eu. The series is edited by Susan Scarrow, Chair of the Department of Political Science, University of Houston, and Jonathan Slapin, Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Zurich Cover Citizen Support for Democratic and Autocratic Regimes Copyright Dedication Acknowledgments Table of Contents List of Figures List of Tables 1: Introduction 1.1. Why study citizen support for democratic and autocratic regimes? 1.2. What we know so far about political support in democracies and autocracies . . . and what we don’t 1.3. Outline of the explanatory model of regime support 1.4. Research strategy, case selection, data, and methods 1.5. Organization of this book 2: Conceptualizing political support in democracies and autocracies 2.1. Democracies and autocracies: two fundamentally different regimes 2.2. A generalized conception of political support and its consequences 3: Sources of regime support in democracies and autocracies 3.1. Sources of regime support on the individual level: overflow of values and generalization of experiences 3.1.1. How value orientations shape regime support 3.1.2. How incumbent support and performance evaluations shape regime support 3.2. Sources of regime support on the system level: the role of context 3.2.1. The role of context in shaping citizens’ value orientations 3.2.2. The role of context in shaping citizens’ performance evaluations 3.3. An integrated explanatory model of regime support and its implications 4: Data and methods 4.1. Case selection, regime classification, data, and research strategy 4.2. Operationalization Operationalizing regime support Operationalizing the individual-level determinants of regime support Operationalizing the system-level determinants of regime support 4.3. Working with survey data from autocracies 5: Levels and sources of regime support in democracies and autocracies 5.1. How much citizens support democratic and autocratic regimes 5.2. Why citizens support democratic and autocratic regimes I: individual-level sources 5.2.1. Global analysis of individual-level sources of regime support Individual-level sources of regime support in democracies Individual-level sources of regime support in autocracies Comparison of individual-level sources of regime support between democracies and autocracies 5.2.2. Regional analyses of individual-level sources of regime support Individual-level sources of regime support in democracies Individual-level sources of regime support in autocracies Comparison of individual-level sources of regime support between democracies and autocracies 5.2.3. Summary of findings on individual-level sources of regime support 5.3. Why citizens support democratic and autocratic regimes II: system-level sources System-level sources of regime support in democracies System-level sources of regime support in autocracies Comparison of system-level sources of regime support between democracies and autocracies Summary of findings on system-level sources of regime support 6: Conclusion 6.1. Analyzing popular support for democratic and autocratic regimes 6.2. Contributions to the literature on regime support 6.3. The stability of democratic and autocratic regimes 6.4. Implications for policymakers and advocates of democracy 6.5. Avenues for future research APPENDIX A: Additional tables and figures on operationalization APPENDIX B: Additional tables and figures on results of the empirical analysis References Index