What Democracy Means to Citizens – and Why It Matters

Abstract

What do citizens think of when they hear the word 'democracy'? Recent studies have focused on precisely this question and its implications for survey research. In particular, several scholars have critiqued traditional survey measures of citizens' support for democracy, arguing that these measures are ambiguous and lead re-spondents to evaluate democracy according to very different criteria (Canache, Mondak and Seligson 2001; Norris 1999; Rose, Mishler and Haerpfer 1998). For example, people from different social, economic, or cultural strata may rate 'satis-faction with the working of democracy' (SWD) as satisfaction with economic per-formance, with the protection of civil liberties, with public service provision, or with the maintenance of law and order. Such criticism has serious practical ramifi-cations, as studies of citizens' support for democracy are frequently used in con-structing policies and rating the viability of democratic regimes. 2 While recent work indicates that individuals conceptualize democracy in a va-riety of ways (Canache et al. 2001; Seligson 2001), to date scholars have not fully explained why citizens think of democracy in different terms, and if these multiple conceptualizations matter. Using data gathered from field research in Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Guatemala, we examine what factors influence citizens' concep-tualizations of democracy. We aim to demonstrate that within a diverse group of respondents, conceptualizations and evaluations of democracy are based upon sev-eral factors, and that the evaluative criteria (or the interpretations of 'democracy') have important implications for regime stability. Our data are uniquely suited to examine these issues. From May through Au-gust 2001, we administered written questionnaires to several samples in Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Guatemala. The core of these questionnaires consisted of open-ended questions, asking respondents to list the things they liked and did not like about democracy in their countries. As these countries vary dramatically in their levels of income, education, urbanization, and ethnic composition, the resulting sample provides a diverse cross-section of citizens in Latin America. 3