Satisfaction with Democracy

Last updated: October 24, 2005

Citizens of 'older' democracies tend to be satisfied with the way democracy works in their countries, while skepticism is more prevalent in 'newer' democracies.

This graph shows where respondents placed themselves in terms of satisfaction with how democracy works in their country. In parentheses is the average satisfaction rating reported by respondents in each election study - the lower the number in parentheses, the more satisfied the respondents on average. Election studies appearing towards the top of the graph have the most satisfied respondents on average. Also provided is the percent of respondents within each election study that chose each answer.

Respondents' satisfaction with democracy...

Data Source:
CSES Module 1: August 4, 2003 version
CSES Module 2: June 29, 2005 version

Variables Used:
CSES Module 1: A3001
CSES Module 2: B3012

Question Text:
On the whole, are you very satisfied, fairly satisfied, not very satisfied, or not at all satisfied with the way democracy works in [country]?
1. VERY SATISFIED
2. FAIRLY SATISFIED
3. NOT VERY SATISFIED
4. NOT AT ALL SATISFIED

Weights Used:
CSES Module 1: A1010_1 (Sample Weight)
CSES Module 2: B1010_1 (Sample Weight)

Notes:

• Missing data has been excluded in all analyses above.
• Chile 1999 does not appear because its data for CSES Module 1 does not include this question.
• The Germany 2002 mail study has been excluded because it made use of an additional code ("neither satisfied nor disatisfied") that was answered by approximately 50% of its respondents. A measurement for Germany 2002 is available from the phone study, which used the standard four-point scale.
• The Hong Kong 2000 election study used a five-point scale, rather than a four-point scale, for this question. For the sake of simplicity, cases that answered the middle code on the five-point scale (comprising 31 persons, less than 5% of Hong Kong 2000 respondents) were ignored in this analysis.
• Please see original codebooks for notes specific to each country and election study.