The Geography of Support for Democracy in Europe
Data postării: Nov 06, 2014 5:38:0 PM
Claudiu D. Tufiș. 2014.
The Geography of Support for Democracy in Europe,
Studia Politica XIV(2): 165-184.
A couple of weeks ago, Studia Politica published the study of Claudiu Tufiș on Support for Democracy in Europe. Our colleague uses data from the 2008-2009 wave of the European Values Study, to describe the mechanisms that lead to supporting democracy and/or authoritarian alternatives. His argument is that Europe is not a homogeneous body, and several clusters are to be noticed. For instance, when it comes to the relation between rejecting non-democratic alternatives and supporting democracy, the Eastern former communist societies are clearly different than the former communist regimes that are more to the West (see figure).
Multilevel regression models prove that in the Western ex-communist countries, there is less support for democracy than in the Western Europe, while in the Eastern ex-communist countries individuals are less likely to reject authoritarian alternatives. Furthermore, the paper shows that support for democracy is generated through mechanisms that may differ from a society to another.
Starting from the conclusions of the paper, one may reflect on the different meanings that individuals may associate with “democracy” and to how the social context may actually redefine it as way to organize common life. To inform such thoughts, I would strongly advise you to read the paper.