Towards a better comprehension of satisfaction with democracy

Abstract

Understanding citizens’ attitudes towards their political systems continues to be a matter of great importance in the beginning of the 21st century. Traditional approaches used to assess these attitudes have proven to be limited and lead to erroneous conclusions. Using data from a pilot study conducted by the European Social Survey in the United Kingdom and Russia in late 2011, this article employs multiple items to offer a comprehensive analysis of citizens’ evaluations of the functioning of their democracies. Findings reveal deep citizen concern with economic performance. Other important conclusions are drawn at both the substantive and methodological levels.