How democratic is government really? The impact of subnational regime variation on evaluations of democracy

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Fidalgo, Amanda
• 署名单位: State University System of Florida; New College Florida
• 刊物名称: GOVERNANCE-AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF POLICY ADMINISTRATION AND INSTITUTIONS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0952-1895
• DOI: 10.1111/gove.12643
• 发表日期: 2022
• 关键词: HUMAN-RIGHTS; satisfaction; support; institutions; legitimacy; perceptions; AFRICA; STATES; LEVEL

摘要

Democracy is not an exclusively national concept, and subnational governments vary in respect for democratic norms and institutions. In subnational authoritarian enclaves, incumbents manipulate elections using fraud, corruption, institutional manipulation, or repression to maintain power. While we know a fair amount about how these authoritarian enclaves form and democratize, we know much less about how they affect the people that live in them. Does subnational democracy influence evaluations of democratic performance? I argue that individuals incorporate subnational outcomes into overall evaluations of democracy, and that subnational democracy positively influences these evaluations. To test this argument, I combine a new measure of subnational democracy, the Subnational Electoral Democracy Scale, with the fifth and sixth waves of the World Values Survey. I find that people living in states with high electoral democracy scores are likely to believe that elections are not manipulated, human rights are protected, and that their country is democratic.