Critical citizens, democratic support and satisfaction in African democracies

Abstract

Worldwide, there is substantial popular support for the ideal of democracy but, on the other hand, there is considerable dissatisfaction with democracy within democracies. Democracies are inhabited by many so-called ‘dissatisfied democrats’: citizens who are strong supporters of the democratic ideal, but are unhappy with the way democracy is working in their country. It is not clear how to explain this phenomenon, but based on a review of the existing literature, two different approaches can be distinguished: an optimistic and a pessimistic one. Subsequently, this article investigates why some people are dissatisfied democrats while others are not in eight African democracies – Benin, Botswana, Ghana, Lesotho, Mali, Namibia, Senegal and South Africa. The empirical evidence seems to support the complex mix of both the optimistic and pessimistic approaches: to be sure, dissatisfied democrats are critical citizens compared with dissatisfied non-democrats, but they are not more politically active than the rest of the population. Future studies need to find out whether dissatisfied democrats can be seen either as a democratic danger or as a democratic defence, but the first findings in this article suggest that a growing group of dissatisfied democrats are a sign of democracy in decline.

Are dissatisfied democrats critical? Reevaluating the concept of the critical citizen

“…The results were that satisfied democrats were more likely to take an interest in politics and to vote in the next election than were dissatisfied democrats (Doorenspleet, 2012, p. 289). Doorenspleet's (2012) study shows the need for further research on the topic, especially in new democracies marked by economic instability and recent experiences with an authoritarian regime (Moisés, 1995(Moisés, , 2008Diamond, 1994;Mishler andRose, 1999, 2001;Torcal and Monteiro, 2006;Bratton and Mattes, 2001). The author emphasized the coexistence, in some African countries, of high percentages of dissatisfied democrats and political instability.…”

“…This paradox has been noticed not only in old democracies, but also in new ones, including those in Latin America (Booth and Seligson, 2009;Salinas and Booth, 2011;Carlin, Singer and Zechmeister, 2016), Africa (Bratton and Mattes, 2001;Doorenspleet, 2012) and Asia (Dalton and Shin, 2006).…”

“…Applying the concept of critical citizen in the African context, Doorenspleet (2012) makes an important observation:…”

“…As a first step in this direction, Doorenspleet (2012) developed a typology of citizens in accordance with Norris' theoretical formulation (1999), using the variables of support for democracy and satisfaction with the political regime. The four types of citizens are: 1) dissatisfied non-democrats; 2) dissatisfied democrats; 3) satisfied non-democrats; and 4) satisfied democrats.…”

“…The danger of this association lies in assuming that dissatisfied democrats are necessarily good for democracy, especially in the context of new democracies. We may suppose, especially in unstable political and economic contexts, that dissatisfied democrats are, in fact, politically apathetic citizens or even predisposed to agree to authoritarian measures (Doorenspleet, 2012).…”