From satisfaction to support : a quantitative comparative study of attitudes towards democracy in Latin America

Abstract

Public support is essential for the survival of a democratic regime. While support for democracy indicates the extent to which democratic rule is massively accepted, satisfaction with democracy evaluates the performance of the democratic regime. Even though the citizens’ satisfaction with democracy is increasing in Latin America, there are still many dissatisfied democrats in the region. If dissatisfaction with the democratic regime corrode the regime support, this can be crucial for the legitimacy, and thus the survival of democracy. Using survey data from 18 Latin American countries combined with contextual information, this thesis finds that trust in democratic institutions and perception of economic situation have the strongest positive effects on citizens’ satisfaction with democracy in Latin America. This is consistent with the results from previous research on satisfaction with democracy in Europe. In addition, this thesis reveals that the attitudes towards democracy in Latin America are also affected by the ‘political culture’ in the region. Societal problems such as corruption and economic inequality have an impact on citizens’ satisfaction with democracy.