Satisfaction with Democracy and Social Capital: Multi-Level Model Evidence for the Pre- and Post-Crisis Era

ABSTRACT

We analyze the relationship between social capital and satisfaction with democracy (SWD) levels. We consider SWD to denote regime support and we operationalize social capital in two different ways so as to discern between individual (micro) and country (macro) level effects. At the individual level, we operationalize social capital as composed of trust (generalized and institutional), human values (altruism, equality, tolerance, humanitarianism), and participatory behavior (political engagement, associations, activism). At the country level, we control for the effect of national culture (power distance, development, masculinity, individualism) upon SWD levels. Individual level data are drawn from the European Social Survey (ESS) Rounds 4 (2008) and 8 (2016). The two periods of time have been chosen to allow for the analysis of the effects that the recent financial crisis has had upon the social capital and SWD relationship. Data on the macro level indicators are drawn from the UN. Our estimation procedures involve the application of multi-level model techniques. Robust evidence is provided of that individual and country level factors interact and shape respondents’ levels of SWD. The dynamic nature of this interaction is also verified in light of the evidence regarding the pre and post crisis periods.

KEYWORDS:

• Satisfaction with democracy
• social capital
• cultural context
• economic crisis
• multi-level models

JEL CODES:

• D71
• E02
• H11

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the Journal’s Editors, Louis-Philippe Rochon and Steve Pressman, for their invaluable support throughout the review process. Also we would like to acknowledge the very great help that we have received from the insightful and highly constructive comments of two anonymous journal reviewers. The usual disclaimer applies.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 UN’s official website: https://www.un.org/en/sections/issues-depth/democracy/index.html

2 Data and the relevant charts and tables regarding the analysis of missing values and the multiple imputation techniques discussed here are available upon request.

3 Taking into account the fact that Durbin-Watson criterion can’t be calculated from weighted data. As far as the unweighted data are concerned, using the same criterion, observations are independent.