Support for the Democratic System
Presents an empirical test of the hypothesis that support for the democratic system is in decline, based on the Eurobarometer indicator of public satisfaction with democratic function. It begins with discussion of the concept of political support and its operationalization. The second part examines trends in political support in each country and across Western Europe as a whole. The third part compares levels of political support between Western European countries. Finally, the trend and level of political support in each country are considered in order to make a more accurate estimation of the state of democracy in these countries. The analysis shows quite clearly that there has been no legitimation problem in the Western European democracies, nor are there signs of any to come.
Keywords: democratic legitimation, Eurobarometer, public confidence, Western Europe
Oxford Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs , and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us .