When long-distance relationships don't work out: Representational distance and satisfaction with democracy in Europe

Abstract

We assess the impact of party representation on satisfaction with democracy. Our proposition is that such representation is not only about having a chosen party in government; citizens also derive satisfaction from having their views represented by a political party. We test this through an individual-level measure of policy (in) congruence: the ideological distance between a voter and his or her closest party. Via multi-level modelling of European Election Study data from 1989 to 2009, we find that perceived policy distance matters: the further away that voters see themselves from their nearest partyon either a left-right or a European unification policy dimensionthe less satisfied they are with democracy. Notably, this effect is not moderated by party incumbency or size. Voters derive satisfaction from feeling represented by a nearby party even if it is small and out of office. Our results caution against a purely outcomes-driven understanding of democratic satisfaction.

‘Think Like Me, and I Will Trust You’

“…Previous studies on the relationship between democratic satisfaction and congruence have noted that including specific policy issues is highly relevant (e.g. Hall & Evans, 2019;van Egmond, Johns & Brandenburg, 2020). For instance, measuring congruence on five issue dimensions, Stecker and Tausendpfund (2016) found that citizens who are more distant from their government are more dissatisfied with democracy.…”

Political support through representation by the government. Evidence from Dutch panel data

“…On the one hand, these studies show that a lower individual ideological distance to the government leads to increased political support also outside of the context of winning and losing an election (Ferland, 2021; Henderson, 2008; Mayne & Hakhverdian, 2017; Noordzij et al, 2021; Stecker & Tausendpfund, 2016). On the other hand, some studies argue that the individual ideological congruence with the government moderates the impact of winning or losing: if the government is closer to your own ideological position, the impact of winning or losing the election is less pronounced (Campbell, 2015; Curini et al, 2012; Curini & Jou, 2016; Gärtner et al, 2020; Hobolt et al, 2021; van Egmond et al, 2020).…”

The Evaluation of the District Legislators’ Performance Affects Citizens’ Satisfaction with Democracy: The Hungarian Example

“…However, we can tell that the performance of parties, governments and the electoral process affect how citizens evaluate democracy. Reportedly, policy congruence between the citizens and the political elites has an important role in influencing democratic satisfaction (Ferland, 2020; Kim, 2009; Reher, 2015; van Egmond et al, 2020). Besides congruence in policy and ideology, André and Depauw (2017) demonstrate the effect of congruence in how citizens and legislators view the representation process.…”