Democracy deficit and homophobic divergence in 21st century Europe

Abstract

In the present study we focus on the relationship between democracy deficit and homophobic divergence within 21st century European societies. Our main research question is about how social attitudes towards lesbians and gays changed in the examined time period (between 2002 and 2016), and whether there are any signs of convergence regarding these issues in different parts of Europe, characterized by different welfare regimes, a quarter of a century after the political system changes in the countries formerly often referred to as the “Eastern Bloc”.

The empirical base of the study is a dataset including all eight rounds of the European Social Survey, focusing especially on a key variable measuring the agreement level with the statement that gay men and lesbians should be free to live their own life as they wish. For data analyses descriptive statistics and explanatory models were constructed by applying multilevel mixed effect linear regression models. Our results show that there are still significant differences between different parts of Europe regarding social attitudes towards gays and lesbians. However, based on our results we would recommend a more refined division than the East–West dichotomy within Europe.

Keywords:

• Democracy deficit
• European Social Survey
• homophobia
• multilevel mixed effects models
• social attitudes

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Additional information

Judit Takács is a Research Chair at the Centre for Social Sciences, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, responsible for leading research teams and conducting independent research on social exclusion/inclusion of LGBTIQ + people, social history of homosexuality, and HIV/AIDS prevention as well as family practices, work-life balance issues and childlessness. Currently she works as a National Expert on Secondment at the ECDC in Stockholm. A list of her publications can be found at http://www.policy.hu/takacs/publications.php.

Ivett Szalma is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Centre for Social Sciences, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, an Assistant Professor at the Public Policies and Management Department of the Corvinus University of Budapest, and the Head of the Family Sociology Section of the Hungarian Sociological Association. Her research topics include the effects of economic crises on work-life conflicts, post-separation fertility, childlessness, measurement of homophobia and adoption by same-sex couples.