Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Does Public Support Help Democracy Survive?

Does Public Support Help Democracy Survive? It is widely believed that democracy requires public support to survive. The empirical evidence for this hypothesis is weak, however, with existing tests resting on small cross‐sectional samples and producing contradictory results. The underlying problem is that survey measures of support for democracy are fragmented across time, space, and different survey questions. In response, this article uses a Bayesian latent variable model to estimate a smooth country‐year panel of democratic support for 135 countries and up to 29 years. The article then demonstrates a positive effect of support on subsequent democratic change, while adjusting for the possible confounding effects of prior levels of democracy and unobservable time‐invariant factors. Support is, moreover, more robustly linked with the endurance of democracy than its emergence in the first place. As Lipset (1959) and Easton (1965) hypothesized over 50 years ago, public support does indeed help democracy survive. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png American Journal of Political Science Wiley

Does Public Support Help Democracy Survive?

Download PDF
17 pages

Loading next page...
 
/lp/wiley/does-public-support-help-democracy-survive-sxuAboutEq
Publisher
Wiley
Copyright
© 2020 by the Midwest Political Science Association
ISSN
0092-5853
eISSN
1540-5907
DOI
10.1111/ajps.12452
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

It is widely believed that democracy requires public support to survive. The empirical evidence for this hypothesis is weak, however, with existing tests resting on small cross‐sectional samples and producing contradictory results. The underlying problem is that survey measures of support for democracy are fragmented across time, space, and different survey questions. In response, this article uses a Bayesian latent variable model to estimate a smooth country‐year panel of democratic support for 135 countries and up to 29 years. The article then demonstrates a positive effect of support on subsequent democratic change, while adjusting for the possible confounding effects of prior levels of democracy and unobservable time‐invariant factors. Support is, moreover, more robustly linked with the endurance of democracy than its emergence in the first place. As Lipset (1959) and Easton (1965) hypothesized over 50 years ago, public support does indeed help democracy survive.

Journal

American Journal of Political Science – Wiley

Published: Jan 1, 2020

References

  • Income and Democracy
    Acemoglu, Daron; Johnson, Simon; Robinson, James A.; Yared, Pierre
  • Reevaluating the Modernization Hypothesis
    Acemoglu, Daron; Johnson, Simon; Robinson, James A.; Yared, Pierre
  • Measuring Effective Democracy: The Human Empowerment Approach
    Alexander, Amy C.; Welzel, Christian
  • Panel Data Models with Interactive Fixed Effects
    Bai, Jushan
  • What to Do (and Not to Do) with Time‐Series Cross‐Section Data
    Beck, Nathaniel; Katz, Jonathan N.
  • Initial Conditions and Moment Restrictions in Dynamic Panel Data Models
    Blundell, Richard; Bond, Stephen
  • Democracy, Development, and the International System
    Boix, Carles
  • The Legitimacy Puzzle in Latin America: Political Support and Democracy in Eight Nations
    Booth, John A.; Seligson, Mitchell A.
  • Measuring Political Democracy: Case Expertise, Data Adequacy, and Central America
    Bowman, Kirk; Lehoucq, Fabrice; Mahoney, James
  • Public Opinion, Democracy, and Market Reform in Africa
    Bratton, Michael; Mattes, Robert; Gyimah‐Boadi, E.
  • Meaning and Measurement in Cross‐National Research on Satisfaction with Democracy
    Canache, Damarys; Mondak, Jeffery J.; Seligson, Mitchell A.
  • Dynamic Estimation of Latent Opinion Using a Hierarchical Group‐Level IRT Model
    Caughey, Devin; Warshaw, Christopher
  • Estimating Smooth Country‐Year Panels of Public Opinion
    Claassen, Christopher
  • Democratic Challenges, Democratic Choices: The Erosion of Political Support in Advanced Industrial Democracies
    Dalton, Russell J.
  • Taking Time Seriously
    De Boef, Susanna; Keele, Luke
  • Developing Democracy: Towards Consolidation
    Diamond, Larry
  • Building and Sustaining Democratic Government in Developing Countries: Some Tentative Findings
    Diamond, Larry; Lipset, Seymour Martin; Linz, Juan
  • A Systems Analysis of Political Life
    Easton, David
  • A Re‐Assessment of the Concept of Political Support
    Easton, David
  • Gradations of Democracy? Empirical Tests of Alternative Conceptualizations
    Elkins, Zachary
  • Changing Mass Attitudes and Democratic Deepening
    Fails, Matthew D.; Pierce, Heather Nicole
  • Islam and Authoritarianism
    Fish, M. Steven
  • The Danger of Deconsolidation: The Democratic Disconnect
    Foa, Roberto Stefan; Mounk, Yascha
  • The Signs of Deconsolidation
    Foa, Roberto Stefan; Mounk, Yascha
  • The Economic Origins of Democracy Reconsidered
    Freeman, John R.; Quinn, Dennis P.
  • ‘A Mile Wide But an Inch Deep’(?): The Structure of Democratic Commitments in the Former USSR
    Gibson, James L.
  • Diffusion and the International Context of Democratization
    Gleditsch, Kristian; Ward, Michael D.
  • Do Natural Resources Fuel Authoritarianism? A Reappraisal of the Resource Curse
    Haber, Stephen; Menaldo, Victor A.
  • Cultural and Economic Prerequisites of Democracy: Reassessing Recent Evidence
    Hadenius, Axel; Teorell, Jan
  • The Political Economy of Democratic Transitions
    Haggard, Stephen; Kaufman, Robert
  • When Should We Use Unit Fixed Effects Regression Models for Causal Inference with Longitudinal Data?
    Imai, Kosuke; Kim, In Song
  • How Solid Is Mass Support for Democracy—and How Can We Measure It?
    Inglehart, Ronald
  • Modernization, Cultural Change, and Democracy: The Human Development Sequence
    Inglehart, Ronald; Welzel, Christian
  • A Theory of Critical Junctures for Democratization: A Comparative Examination of Constitution‐Making in Egypt and Tunisia
    Jamal, Amal; Kensicki, Anna
  • Critical Citizens: Global Support for Democratic Governance
    Klingemann, Hans‐Dieter
  • Revealed: One in Four Europeans Vote Populist
    Lewis, Paul; Clarke, Seán; Barr, Caelainn; Holder, Josh; Kommenda, Niko
  • V‐Dem: A New Way to Measure Democracy
    Lindberg, Staffan I.; Coppedge, Michael; Gerring, John; Teorell, Jan; Pemstein, Daniel; Tzelgov, Eitan; Wang, Yi‐ting; Glynn, Adam; Altman, David; Bernhard, Michael; Fish, Steven; Hicken, Alan; Kroenig, Matthew; McMann, Kelly; Paxton, Pamela; Reif, Megan; Skaaning, Svend‐Erik; Staton, Jeffrey
  • Some Social Requisites of Democracy: Economic Development and Political Legitimacy
    Lipset, Seymour Martin
  • Government Effectiveness and Support for Democracy
    Magalhães, Pedro C.
  • Learning about Democracy in Africa: Awareness, Performance, and Experience
    Mattes, Robert; Bratton, Michael
  • How Much Democratic Backsliding?
    Mechkova, Valeriya; Lührmann, Anna; Lindberg, Staffan I.
  • Critical Citizens: Global Support for Governance
    Mishler, William; Rose, Richard
  • Generation, Age, and Time: The Dynamics of Political Learning during Russia's Transformation
    Mishler, William; Rose, Richard
  • Counterfactuals and Causal Inference: Methods and Principles for Social Research
    Morgan, Stephen L.; Winship, Christopher
  • Conceptualizing and Measuring Democracy: Evaluating Alternative Indices
    Munck, Gerardo L.; Verkuilen, Jay
  • Democratic Deficit: Critical Citizens Revisited
    Norris, Pippa
  • Democratic Compromise: A Latent Variable Analysis of Ten Measures of Regime Type
    Pemstein, Daniel; Meserve, Stephen; Melton, James
  • Liberal Democracy's Fading Allure
    Plattner, Marc F.
  • Communism's Shadow: Historical Legacies and Contemporary Political Attitudes
    Pop‐Eleches, Grigore; Tucker, Joshua A.
  • Modernization: Theories and Facts
    Przeworski, Adam; Limongi, Fernando
  • How Mass Political Attitudes Affect Democratization: Exploring the Facilitating Role Critical Democrats Play in the Process
    Qi, Lingling; Shin, Doh Chull
  • A Note on the Theme of Too Many Instruments
    Roodman, David
  • Testing the Churchill Hypothesis: Popular Support for Democracy and Its Alternatives
    Rose, Richard; Mishler, William
  • Democracy and Its Alternatives: Understanding Post‐Communist Societies
    Rose, Richard; Mishler, William; Haerpfer, Christian
  • Does Oil Hinder Democracy?
    Ross, Michael L.
  • Capitalist Development and Democracy
    Rueschemeyer, Dietrich; Stephens, Evelyne Huber; Stephens, John D.
  • Apples and Oranges? The Problem of Equivalence in Comparative Research
    Stegmueller, Daniel
  • Determinants of Democratization: Explaining Regime Change in the World, 1972–2006
    Teorell, Jan
  • Measuring Polyarchy across the Globe, 1900–2017
    Teorell, Jan; Coppedge, Michael; Lindberg, Staffan; Skaaning, Svend‐Erik
  • Are Levels of Democracy Affected by Mass Attitudes? Testing Attainment and Sustainment Effects on Democracy
    Welzel, Christian
  • Freedom Rising: Human Empowerment and the Quest for Emancipation
    Welzel, Christian
  • Liberal Democracy's Crisis of Confidence
    Wilke, Richard; Fetterolf, Janell
  • But Wait, There's More! Maximizing Substantive Inferences from TSCS Models
    Williams, Laron K.; Whitten, Guy D.
  • The Public as Thermostat: Dynamics of Preferences for Spending
    Wlezien, Christopher