Kostelka, Filip and Linek, Lukáš and Rovny, Jan and Škvrňák, Michael (2025) Electoral participation and satisfaction with democracy in Central and Eastern Europe. Political Science Research and Methods. pp. 1-21. DOI https://doi.org/10.1017/psrm.2025.10028
Kostelka, Filip and Linek, Lukáš and Rovny, Jan and Škvrňák, Michael (2025) Electoral participation and satisfaction with democracy in Central and Eastern Europe. Political Science Research and Methods. pp. 1-21. DOI https://doi.org/10.1017/psrm.2025.10028
Kostelka, Filip and Linek, Lukáš and Rovny, Jan and Škvrňák, Michael (2025) Electoral participation and satisfaction with democracy in Central and Eastern Europe. Political Science Research and Methods. pp. 1-21. DOI https://doi.org/10.1017/psrm.2025.10028
Abstract
Does democratic satisfaction drive voter turnout, or does voting increase satisfaction with democracy? This paper explores the satisfaction-participation nexus in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), where democratic dissatisfaction is prominent. It tests preregistered hypotheses using a five-wave panel survey from the Czech 2023 presidential election and a pooled dataset from five CEE countries. Unlike previous studies from Western Europe, it finds evidence for both mechanisms: pre-election satisfaction correlates with participation, but, simultaneously, voters experience a stronger election-related increase in satisfaction than abstainers. Further analyses reveal that the strong increases in satisfaction are driven by election winners and begin already during the election campaign. Our findings highlight the specificities of the satisfaction-participation link and elections’ legitimizing effects in newer democracies.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | elections and campaigns, European politics, public opinion, voter turnout, voting behavior |
| Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences Faculty of Social Sciences > Government, Department of |
| SWORD Depositor: | Unnamed user with email elements@essex.ac.uk |
| Depositing User: | Unnamed user with email elements@essex.ac.uk |
| Date Deposited: | 19 Nov 2025 15:47 |
| Last Modified: | 19 Nov 2025 15:47 |
| URI: | http://repository.essex.ac.uk/id/eprint/41176 |
Available files
Filename: Kostelka et al. 2025 Satisfaction.pdf
Licence: Creative Commons: Attribution 4.0