Having a say or getting your way? Political choice and satisfaction with democracy

Sara Hobolt, Julian Hoerner, Toni Rodo

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Abstract

Citizen satisfaction with democracy is greater when parties offer choices that are congruent with voter preferences. But are citizens content with simply having a party that represents their views or does their satisfaction depend on whether that party can also be instrumental in implementing policies? We argue that instrumentality moderates the effect of ideological congruence on democratic satisfaction. Combining an analysis of cross-national survey data with an experimental conjoint design, we find that citizens able to vote for a congruent party with a chance of entering government are more satisfied with democracy, whereas congruence without instrumentality has no such effect.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)854-873
Number of pages20
JournalEuropean Journal of Political Research
Volume60
Issue number4
Early online date25 Nov 2020
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Nov 2021

Keywords

  • political choice
  • satisfaction with democracy
  • congruence
  • instrumentality

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