Over onderzoek naar demokratie en politieke participatie: het verschijnsel politieke tevredenheid

Samenvatting

Modern political science research into the level of democracy of a given political system typically has some of the following shortcomings: an operationalization of the concept of democracy in terms of political participation; an explanation of political participation in terms of political efficacy; & a method of scaling that makes any conclusion about the aggregate level of participation rather arbitrary. Some modern research shows that (1) the level of political satisfaction, both with specific output of government & with the more diffuse processes within the political system, is high, (2) the levels of political participation are rather low, & (3) both 1 & 2 may occur at the same time in the same population. More research is needed into the meaning of the phenomenon of political satisfaction. Theories of the "new political economy" (eg A. Downs, R. Curry, & L. Wade) give important thoughts about that meaning. AA.