Suchergebnisse

There is a substantial literature on the impact of having voting for an electorally victorious party on individual voters' satisfaction with democracy. Yet, there have been few evaluations as to temporally salient are elections to the satisfaction levels for those who voted for a "winning" party and those who voted for a "losing" party. Using rounds 1–8 of the European Social Surveys, I find evidence from 92 elections in 27 European countries that both the levels of and the difference between satisfaction levels of "winners" and "losers" do not attenuate quickly but rather last almost 5 years. That is, it appears that "winners" are more satisfied with democracy and stay that way. While this confirms earlier, smaller studies, the absence of a causal connection between the time from election and satisfaction levels poses a significant challenge to the current literature about the electoral mechanism of this relationship.

Using original survey data from the early democratization period in Central and Eastern Europe, I compare the choice of media for individuals' informational demands in the context of differently evolved media environments. Using the quasi-experimental setting of the Czech Republic and Slovakia, the findings indicate that individuals who express more interest in staying informed about politics are more likely to use public rather than privatizing media. Further, in the context of the multilevel design, this media preference is consistent regardless of the differing extents of privatization between the countries. This analysis adds empirical evidence to the ongoing debate on the role of mass media and the process of political socialization in democratizing countries.

AbstractUsing new mass surveys in central and eastern Europe, this article tests utilitarianism and economic values as the bases of support for the European Union. Advancing our understanding, the empirical findings point to increasingly nuanced economic criteria as the perception of social inequality strongly and independently influences EU support.