| Description: |
There is no clear consensus whether attitudes supportive of democracy and democratic citizenship constitute a single attitudinal domain, or are empirically distinct from each other. In empirical studies of attitudes and behavior in Bulgaria, Chile, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Italy, Spain and Uruguay, we find clear evidence that such attitudes are both conceptually and empirically distinct, forming three different attitudinal dimensions: diffuse support for democracy, satisfaction with the performance of democracy, and political disaffection (which can be further broken down into the classic "internal" and "external" efficacy clusters). These three clusters have distinctly different behavioral correlates: dissatisfaction leads to votes against the incumbent party; a lack of diffuse system support is associated with votes for anti-democratic parties; and disaffection leads to low citizen involvement in democratic politics. We find no consistent evidence that diffuse support for democracy (a key component of regime legitimacy) is dependent on satisfaction with the performance of democracy.
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