The quality of government determinants of support for democracy

• Author: Marina Nistotskaya,Frida Boräng,Georgios Xezonakis
• Date: 01 February 2017
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/pa.1643
• Published date: 01 February 2017

SPECIAL ISSUE PAPER

The quality of government determinants of support for

democracy*

Frida Boräng |Marina Nistotskaya |Georgios Xezonakis

Department of Political Science, University of

Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden

Correspondence

Frida Boräng, Department of Political Science,

University of Gothenburg, Box 711, 405 30

Gothenburg, Sweden.

Email: frida.borang@pol.gu.se

This paper argues that in addition to “what democracies do,”“how democracies do it”produces an

independent source of support for democracy. We argue that a high procedural quality of

bureaucracy may promote support for democracy by diminishing the likelihood of the occurrence

of cognitive dissonance between democracy as an ideal and the experienced. Furthermore, we

expect the beneficial impact of a higher quality of government (QoG) to be more visible in

younger democracies. We subject this claim to a multilevel empirical analysis with large n and

N and across a considerable time span. The analysis reveals that higher QoG is linked with higher

levels of diffuse support, and that this effect is stronger in younger democracies. The data are less

supportive with respect to the positive impact of QoG on specific support, calling for further

research into the matter.

1|INTRODUCTION

Following a growing literature on regime support, this paper argues

that in addition to “what democracies do,”“how democracies do it”

produces an independent source of support for democracy. A high

procedural quality of bureaucracy may promote support for democracy

by facilitating citizens' calculations on the utility of democracy or by

generating “the belief that existing political institutions are the most

appropriate and proper ones for the society”(Lipset, 1959, 86). In addi-

tion to this, the extent of impartiality may affect citizens' democratic

values and behavior by providing cognitive resonance or consonance

between democracy as an ideal and practice.

Furthermore, we expect the beneficial impact of a higher proce-

dural quality of public bureaucracy to be more visible in younger

democracies, due to three reasons. First, the expectations of citizens

about “how democracy works”upon its advent and after many years,

or perhaps centuries, of nondemocratic rule may be excessively high,

and therefore more easily affected by “shocks.”Second, the tradition

of partiality in the exercise of power is likely to be strong in new

democracies (Diamond, Plattner, & Shedler, 1999, p. 1), making the

probability of disappointment in democracy as an ideal and practice

more likely to happen. Therefore, it stands to reason that if the

problem of partiality in the exercise of the public authority is suitably

addressed from the very onset of democracy, then the likelihood of

cognitive dissonance occurrence diminishes, and diffuse and specific

support for democracy will be higher compared to young democracies

with lower quality of government (QoG). In older democracies, where

democracy is truly “the only game in town,”regime support could be

less dependent on fluctuations in quality of public bureaucracy. Finally,

due to low institutional consolidation (e.g. parties, civil society) the

saliency of the input side as regards political legitimacy is expected

to be less prevalent in younger democracies, compared to older ones.

We subject this claim to a multilevel empirical analysis with large n

and N and across a considerable time span. Data over regime support

is obtained from the longitudinal multiple‐wave dataset of the World

Values Survey (WVS) while data on the procedural quality of public

bureaucracy comes from the International Country Risk Group data

(ICRG). The analysis reveals that the procedural quality of bureaucracy

has a beneficial effect on diffuse support, and that this effect is

stronger in younger democracies. When it comes to specific regime

support, it is only in the youngest democracies that QoG has a

significant positive effect.

2|LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 |Regime support: Principles and performance

Following David Easton's classic work (1965, 1975, 1976), we consider

political support—the “way in which a person evaluative orients himself

to some object through either his attitudes or his behaviour”(Easton,

1975, p. 436)—as a multidimensional concept and distinguishes

*This paper is part of the project: Performance of Democracies, financed by an

Advanced Research Grant from the European Research Council to Professor

Bo Rothstein, grant number 339571

Received: 12 December 2016 Accepted: 30 December 2016

DOI 10.1002/pa.1643

J Public Affairs. 2017;17:e1643.

https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.1643

Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/pa 1of11