Conceptualizing and Measuring Citizens’ Preferences for Democracy: Taking Stock of Three Decades of Research in a Fragmented Field

• Author: Pascal D. König,Markus B. Siewert,Kathrin Ackermann
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/00104140211066213
• Published date: 01 October 2022
• Date: 01 October 2022
• Subject Matter: Articles

Article

Comparative Political Studies

2022, Vol. 55(12) 2015–2049

© The Author(s) 2022

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DOI: 10.1177/00104140211066213

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Conceptualizing and

Measuring Citizens’

Preferences for

Democracy: Taking

Stock of Three Decades

of Research in a

Fragmented Field

Pascal D. K ¨

onig

1

, Markus B. Siewert

2

, and

Kathrin Ackermann

3



Abstract

Research dealing with citizens’preferences for different conceptions of

democracy has grown and diversified greatly. This has resulted in a highly

fragmented field in which empirical evidence cannot easily be integrated into a

consistent larger picture. This systematic review takes stock of this research

to uncover the roots of existing inconsistencies and to show how future

research can avoid them. It maps three decades of research regarding

conceptualizations and measurement approaches that have been chosen to

study citizens’preferences for democracy. By systematically carving out the

variation in the chosen approaches, the review shows why existing research

can hardly add up to a clear diagnosis regarding what kind of democracy

citizens prefer. A critical discussion based on this review highlights that

1

TU Kaiserslautern, Germany

2

Bavarian School of Public Policy at TU Munich, Gemany

3

Heidelberg University, Germany

Corresponding Author:

Pascal D. K¨

onig, Department of Political Science, TU Kaiserslautern, Erwin-Schr¨

odinger-

Straße, Building 57, Kaiserslautern 67653, Germany.

Email: pascal.koenig@sowi.uni-kl.de

cumulative research will require a stronger conceptual and methodological

integration between different strands in the literature.

Keywords

preferences for democracy, political culture, empirical democracy research,

systematic review

Introduction

Democracies are under pressure across the globe. There are signs of increasing

fatigue and widespread superficial adherence to democratic norms and

principles as well as democratic backsliding in various countries (Graham &

Svolik, 2020;Levitsky & Ziblatt, 2018;Lührmann & Lindberg, 2019;Wuttke,

Gavras, et al., 2020). Yet satisfaction with democracy and democratic support

are still high, particularly in Western societies (Martini & Quaranta, 2020).

Given these contradictions, it is important to know not just how strongly

citizens support democracy, but also what kind of democracy it is that they

support. More concretely, we need to know how citizens want to see dem-

ocratic rule realized: What preferences do citizens have regarding different

models of democracy, and which democratic decision-making processes do

they prefer? Within empirical democracy research, these questions are ap-

proached from different angles using diverse concepts and measures. We

provide a systematic review of this empirical literature on citizen preferences

for democracy.

Departing from seminal works by Easton (1965) and Almond and Verba

(1963), empirical democracy research can be divided into three larger fields.

The study of democratic norms and values is the first to mention. Highly

influential studies have looked at the prevalence of norms and values that are

supportive of democracy (Inglehart, 1997;Putnam et al., 1994) or more

specifically at explicitly democratic values expressing a commitment to

democratic principles (Gibson, 1996;Gibson et al., 1992;Seligson, 2000). A

second important field is the study of support for democracy. Directly linked to

Easton’s (1965) work, aspects such as satisfaction with democracy and po-

litical trust as well as their antecedents and consequences have been studied

from different angles in this line of research (Canache et al., 2001;Kiewiet de

Jonge, 2016;Norris, 1999). A third strand deals with democratic preferences

by examining people’s conceptions of democracy, their preferences for certain

models of democracy, or concrete decision-making processes. In other words,

these studies ask what exactly people express support for when they state that

they support democracy. This review will focus on this third line of research

2016 Comparative Political Studies 55(12)

that investigates citizens’democratic preferences, which took off especially in

the 2000s.

Having an accurate picture regarding what kind of democracy citizens

want, and whether they even have clear preferences, matters for assessing the

stability of democracy and possible threats to it. Three decades of research

produced a wealth of empirical insights on citizens’preferences concerning

democracy. Yet, when looking at the entire breadth of findings, it seems that

different conceptions of democracy are simultaneously popular. We know,

first, that a majority of citizens primarily demand democracy in terms of rights,

liberties, and procedures, traditionally associated with Dahl’s notion of liberal

democracy (e.g., Canache, 2012a;Dalton et al., 2007;Tianjian Shi & Jie Lu,

2010). Second, research has also shown that people commonly deem direct-

democratic procedures an important part of democracy, with levels of support

for referenda reaching 70% and higher (e.g., Anderson & Goodyear-Grant,

2010;Bengtsson & Mattila, 2009;Bowler et al., 2007;Coff´

e & Michels,

2014;Fern´

andez-Mart´

ınez & Font, 2018). Existing evidence also

shows, third, that sizable portions of populations endorse a so-called “stealth

democracy”which leaves political decisions to independent experts while

avoiding political debates and conflict (seminally, Hibbing & Theiss-Morse,

2002; see also Bengtsson & Mattila, 2009;Lavezzolo & Ramiro, 2018;Webb,

2013). Fourth, there has more recently been a surge of research on populist

attitudes (Rooduijn, 2019). This attitude too expresses a preference for a

certain form of democratic politics (Rovira Kaltwasser & Van Hauwaert,

2020, p. 2) and empirical evidence suggests that there exists widespread

support among citizens for populism and a populist politics that aims to realize

some true and unitary will of the people (Castanho Silva et al., 2019;Van

Hauwaert, Schimpf, & Azevedo, 2019).

This synopsis already illustrates that the existing empirical evidence is

remarkably fragmented. Taken together, it is hard to tell what kind of de-

mocracy citizens prefer. This article aims to illuminate the roots of this

disjointed state of scholarship by adopting a broad perspective that includes

different strands in the literature. We contribute to the literature on citizen

preferences for different realizations of democracy with a systematic review

that provides a basis for strengthening the links between different subfields.

Drawing on the analytical framework by Munck and Verkuilen (2002) and

applying it to the demand-side of democracy research, three questions guide

our study: First, which conceptualizations of democracy are studied, and how

prevalent are they in the literature? Second, which measures are used to

capture preferences for democracy? And third, which aggregation strategies

have been adopted?

We address these questions with a review covering 98 empirical studies

from the period 1990 to 2019. In doing so, we highlight commonalities in

approaches, where important differences lie, and what consequences they

K¨

onig et al. 2017