Magalhães, C. P. & Ceka, B. (2014) “The meaning of democracy changes for Europeans depending on their education status, income and national context“, LSE EUROPP Blog, 27 August.
Most Europeans value democracy, but do all citizens have the same conception of what democracy is? Pedro C. Magalhães and Besir Ceka assess variations in how Europeans conceive of democracy and analyse the various factors which underpin different interpretations. Their findings indicate that there are a wide variety of conceptions of democracy across Europe. The key mechanism explaining this variation is that individuals in high education and high income groups tend to more readily support the kinds of democracy which represent the ‘status quo’ in their country than citizens from lower education/income groups.
When asked directly in surveys, most people state that they prefer “democracy” to any other form of government, and this holds around the globe. As Inglehart and Norris put it, “In the last decade, democracy has become virtually the only political model with global appeal, no matter what the culture.” What is much less clear, however, is what people really mean by democracy and what explains the different meanings they attach to this ideal.
Our understanding of attitudes toward democracy has deepened in recent years and round 6 of the European Social Survey (ESS) offers a great opportunity to further probe the seemingly ubiquitous support for democracy. This survey includes a carefully designed list of things of what “democracy” might conceivably mean to people, and asks respondents to rate them, on a scale from “not at all important” (0) to “extremely important for democracy in general” (10).
Relevant posts:
- Dorn, Ν. (2014) “The real lesson from the financial crisis is that we need to stop insulating financial regulation from democracy“, LSE EUROPP Blog, 15 July.
- Innerarity, D. (2014) “EU democracy should be based on the principle of respecting diverse identities, not uniting through the creation of a European demos“, LSE EUROPP Blog, 09 July.
- Mc Donnell, D. (2014) “The minimal rise in turnout in the EP elections shows that voter apathy is still the greatest threat to European democracy“, LSE EUROPP Blog, 31 May.