National Electoral Winners and Losers: Satisfaction with Democracy Predicated on Institutional Context [thesis]

Casey Knott
How does being an electoral winner or loser shape a citizen's satisfaction with democracy? More importantly, how does the voter's institutional context moderate this relationship? In this paper, I demonstrate that the institutional context of a democracy interacts with a citizen's national-level electoral loser status to moderate the relationship between the individual's status as a loser and her satisfaction with democracy in her country. I also explore the way winning and losing at different
more » ... evels of representation interact to formulate satisfaction with democracy. Using cross-sectional survey data from the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems nested in 75 different country-election year cases over the time period of 1996 to 2012, I find mixed evidence that electoral losers are more likely to be satisfied with democracy when their chosen party is more favored by the party vote/seat share discrepancy. Unlike losing voters, winning voters do not appear to be more or less likely to be satisfied based on the vote/seat discrepancy. I also find mixed support for the idea that winning at the national level produces greater satisfaction than winning at the district level.
doi:10.31390/gradschool_theses.4609 fatcat:vadofawcn5bchlrl6nd5s6nyq4