Output-oriented Legitimacy: Individual- and System-level Influences on Democracy Satisfaction

The chapter shows that the individual calculus of democratic satisfaction operates remarkably evenly across a range of different institutional contexts, with assessments of government performance playing a predictably key role. In addition, the results show that, while the ?unfairness? of electoral system outcomes that is typically associated with plurality rules reduces satisfaction levels, this effect is more than offset by the positive effects of the greater ?clarity of responsibility? that is also typically associated with plurality systems. This finding has potentially important implications for any (re-)design of electoral systems that is aimed at increasing the overall level of regime satisfaction.